Posted by Johan van Mierlo on Thu, Jun 25, 2009
ProClip Brodit products are manufactured in Karlsborg, Sweden which is located on Vattern Lake. Every year Brodit participates in an international event called the VatternRundan. The VatternRundan is a large bicycle event that goes around Vattern Lake for a total of 180 miles (300 Kilometers). A total of 18,000 riders took part in this event. The first group started at 9:30 pm and the last group started at 5:00 am the following morning. The event ran from June 12th to 13th.
Brodit invited their importers/distributors to take part in this amazing tour. Below, you can see the group that took part in the VatternRundan (including me).
Participating Brodit importers were from Finland, Germany, Holland, USA, United Kingdom, and Sweden!
Our team had a great time even though the weather wasn't working with us. The day before the event we had intense rain with equally intense wind. It truly was a perfect storm. Everyone was scrambling to gather more gear to weather proof themselves. The day of the event brought less rain, but the wind continued to rage. The weather took a toll and 3000 participants failed to start, while 1000 dropped out. Therefore only 15,000 total ended up riding in the event. I will be better prepared for the next time.
This was an experience I won't forget and is worth doing again. Everyone was promised better weather for the next VatternRundan since it couldn't get any worse.
A big thank you to Brodit for hosting this event for us.
More images, are below, of the VatternRundan in 2009:
Getting Ready
Starting Line
Tense Faces
Terrible Weather
100 Kilometer-rest area
Packing up
Our Crew
And some final thoughts after the Vatternrundan was all over....
VatternRundan 2010 is next.