This is a tough mountain bike trip that enables you to ride this year’s route of OffroadFinnmark 300 in the space of three days.
That’s about 250 km divided into three legs of 75-95 km per day (we don’t ride the first leg of 50 km, but you can do this as a bonus if you arrive early the day before or depart late the day after the trip). On our Skill and Fitness scale, this ride is rated S5 / F8. Mark the date on your calendar: 13th – 15th July. We meet for a briefing the evening before (Thursday 12th) to go through the map, plan and check gear. Representatives from the Offroad Finnmark organisation will also attend this meeting to share their experiences and answer any questions.
We have ridden both the OF700 and OF300 races and believe that riding the actual route just a couple of weeks before the start (OF700 starts on 1 August and OF300 starts on 3 August) offers many advantages. From a training perspective, it offers extensive training of between 25 and 30 hours. From a technical, tactical and equipment perspective, it gives you time to make any necessary adjustments, purchase equipment or remedy anything that crops up as a result of this trip.
Everyone, including those who have competed in the OF300 race before, will benefit from this trip from both a training and tactical perspective. If you have not cycled in the Finnmark terrain before, no less in the OffroadFinnmark, you will gain solid experience and expertise of the conditions on the Finnmarksvidda mountain plain, about the race and about what is required. This will significantly increase your chances of a good performance in the actual race.
Surface
We mostly ride on quad bike trails. This means double tracks that roughly follow the lines of the terrain, which is hilly and relatively dry. But every time we need to cross the “wrong” path (in other words east-west), it means a lot up and down, swamp crossings and many streams to ford. We sometimes encounter rivers, which we need to wade to far up our thighs (or worse) to cross.
Weather and conditions
Finnmark in July often means relatively good weather with lots of sun and little rain and temperatures between 12 and 25 ˚C. However, the summer 2017 confirmed once and for all that when it comes to weather everything is not necessarily normal any longer. It was very wet. The Finnmarksvidda ended up like a wet sponge and riding by bike became an interesting exercise. But the rain is always followed by the sun. Consequently, we are convinced that the summer of 2018 will be the best in living memory.
Equipment
After the Lord created the Finnmarkvidda mountain plain, as far as we have been able to ascertain, he inspected this wonderful gem in the north on a full suspension 29er. This has also become the natural choice for us who live here today. If you can choose – go for a 29-inch full suspension. If not, bring the bike you have and you will end up buying a full suspension afterwards. If you do not have an FS29, you may rent one from us! Check out our bike rental page for more info!
Included
Transport, luggage transport (partly), meals (from lunch on day 1 to lunch on day 3), guide (repairman and local guide) and accommodation. Wilderness lunch grilled on an open fire every day!
The legs:
tbc
Accommodation:
tbc
