Sweden From South to North 2020 - Jonas Andersson Attempts A Tough Record

Press Release / 02.08.2020

This week Jonas Andersson is attempting to beat a tough record cycling the length of Sweden. Here, in his own words, is how and why he has embraced this episode of suffering. :)

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2020 is the year when all of our races and much more were cancelled! What does an adventure racer who loves extreme challenges do instead?

My idea is to bike the whole of Sweden length-wise as fast as I can! The distance is 2,050km and the start will be on the morning of August 4th from Smygehuk, with the finish at Treriksröset in the north. The fastest time so far is 99 hours which I aim to beat.

I`m the team captain of Greener Adventure Team and we normally compete in the Adventure Racing World Series. Our main goal for 2020 was the World Championship in Paraguay in September but sadly that was cancelled. (Our team consists of Cecilia Jessen, Mårten Svensson, Simon Niemi and myself, Jonas Andersson.)

All multiday races are challenging and so is this roadbike adventure through Sweden! I chose this challenge because I wanted to do something totally different from what I´m used to. I normally don´t do road biking but I want to try to show what fantastic endurance athletes we adventure racers are by throwing myself into this 2,050km long road ride with only 5 weeks preparation.

The Plan

This adventure will also demand a team effort.

I will bike the whole length on my own with some support. I won´t draft or ride behind anyone and my support will be a car that transports spares, food and water.

On our last adventure race, Expedition Africa on Rodrigues Island, we had all our gear and food in a small boat that we had with us during the whole race. This ride will be a reminder of that race, with a mobile transition area that I plan to get support from every 3rd hour.

Our sleep tactics in AR are often that we race for 36 hours when we stop and sleep for 1.5-2 hours, then we race for another 24 hours when we sleep again.  If we need to, we take powernaps for 15-20 minutes.

For the ride my sleep will be just on the road in the fastest possible way. It might be in a ditch if tiredness demands it, in a tent or inside. Just the way it is on an Adventure Race. I don´t know if it is possible to follow the same pattern this time because the stress on the body will be so monotonous. Plus there is the lack of variation that you normally get in an AR where you have the map to read or problems to solve to get the team forward.

This is the plan but as usual we are prepared to change it!

The Support

In the support car will be Cecilia Jessen and Jens Mårtensson, who did our social media in a fantastic way on our latest AR on Rodrigues, together with our pro photographer Jana Julian who has joined us for two races previously. With this media setup and a GPS tracker, the adventure will be fun and easy to follow. Our idea is that this ride will be an adventure race in a “lab” environment which will give you the opportunity to follow us really closely and see how it can be done.

Jens and Cecilia will join me on their bikes whenever they like and in the middle of Sweden, somewhere near Falun, Mårten will join us and bike 24 hours, and from Arvidsjaur Simon will also join us.

During the whole ride anyone is more than welcome to join me! But it will be me who does the pacing, and no one is allowed to stay in front of me :)

The plan is that when I reach Treriksröset in the far north of Sweden, our team will be gathered altogether and we hope to bike the last few hours all together!

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SleepMonsters will be following Jonas’s ride throughout and you can see his live tracker at: https://map.racetracker.no/?race=tts_2020