History

The current randonnée style ride, Length of Sweden Sverigetempot, was launched in 2008. The current version is about 2100 km starting in Riksgränsen and finishing in Smygehuk.

Earlier versions of Sverigetempot in the 1980s and 1990 were timed events inspired by the Race Across America. They had different start- and endpoints and were never longer than 1700 km.

Length of Sweden Sverigetempot the start 2009 in Riksgränsen

Cykelloppet The Length of Sweden Sverigetempot går från Riksgränsen till Smygehuk och är omkring 2100 km. Max tiden är cirka 7 och ett halvt dygn.

Krister J Smygehuk 2009

2008

The inaugural edition of the randonnée style ride had gathered a small but enthusiastic lineup of long distance cyclists. A major roadwork south of Kiruna prompted an improvised detour of about 50 km.

Start point: Riksgränsen
End point: Malmö

Torkel Skogman in Riksgränsen at the start of Sverigetempot 2008 Photo: Torkel Skogman

2009

The finish moved to Smygehuk the southern most part of Sweden for this edition. Some of the riders had decided to do a kind of prolog ride from Nordkapp, Norway down south to the start in Riksgränsen, Sweden.
Daily blog posts at outside online and discussions at the Swedish online forum happymtb (now happyride.se) made it possible to follow the riders towards Smygehuk.

Start point: Riksgränsen
End point: Smygehuk

2012

A surprise roadwork south of Lillhärdal had the riders practising their off-road skills. There was quite a few number of punctures negotiating this stretch of the route.
Voluntary rider call in at the controls made it possible to follow the leaderboard published at facebook during this edition.

Start point: Riksgränsen
End point: Smygehuk

2014

The rainy edition.
One of the riders programmed a map-based tracker during his train journey to the start. This made dot-watching possible during this edition.

Start point: Riksgränsen
End point: Smygehuk

2016

The social media edition.
A major roadwork south of Lillhärdal, the continuation of the one from 2012, made the route some 65 km longer this edition.
For the first time the fastest finishers completed the ride with an average speed above 20 km/h. The 100 hours is however yet to be broken.

Start point: Riksgränsen
End point: Smygehuk

Anna Petters official finisher Smygehuk 2016-07-23 18:36 Length of Sweden Sverigetempot. Photo: Peter Tonér