NorthCape4000 - 29 July 2017

bikebit

One continent, seven countries, over 4000km self supported with a legendary destination, the Arctic Circle! This is the NorthCape4000.



http://www.northcape4000.com/en

ugo.santalucia

Nice, but 196 Euro for a bag of goodies and a GPS tracking device seems a rather rough deal. The insurance is probably worth 20 Euros and in most cases worthless as it comes included with home insurance and such things...

rolf_f

Dull route through Scandinavia as well. In the scheme of things the cost of the event isn't much though compared to the overall costs of participating. But effectively you are paying to have someone elses idea of a good route foisted on you. And you are missing out on 1000s of spectacular miles through Norway.

ugo.santalucia

Rolf F wrote:

Dull route through Scandinavia as well. In the scheme of things the cost of the event isn't much though compared to the overall costs of participating. But effectively you are paying to have someone elses idea of a good route foisted on you. And you are missing out on 1000s of spectacular miles through Norway.

Had the same feeling... why cutting through FInland when you can go via Norway o Sweden? I assume Finland in summer is just mosquito-land

rolf_f

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Dull route through Scandinavia as well. In the scheme of things the cost of the event isn't much though compared to the overall costs of participating. But effectively you are paying to have someone elses idea of a good route foisted on you. And you are missing out on 1000s of spectacular miles through Norway.

Had the same feeling... why cutting through FInland when you can go via Norway o Sweden? I assume Finland in summer is just mosquito-land

Depends - July is probably peak so by the time these riders get there it shouldn't be too bad. They are mostly about when the melting snow has covered the landscape in water. Once that goes you are OK. I heard stories of cars being ground to a halt by mosquitos clogging the radiators but for us they were no worse than you might experience in the Western Highlands.

But basically, you are going to have a good 1500 miles of gently undulating low forest to get through with few landmarks or anything to look forward to. We met an English bloke who had done Gothenburg to Stockholm as part of his planned ride to North Cape. He got bored even with that leg and took the train to Bodo on the Norwegian coast and cycled South from there!

Of course, if you insisted on starting in Florence, going through Western Norway would seriously add to the mileage and challenge. Our mileage came to well over 4000 just from Rotterdam.

Incidentally, unless you get the ferry to Kirkeness, you've probably got about another 4 days of riding still to do once you've reached North Cape before you reach your transport home!