News

Technical Guide for the race is now published, and you will find it here.

Minor changes can occur. If so, updated TG will be published and notice will be made.

30 year old Marianne Vos will for sure be one of the favourites in this years Ladies Tour of Norway. Most Norwegians probably won’t notify that. But this is female cycling’s equivalent to Norway’s superstar Marit Bjørgen in the skiing tracks. With 3 World titles under her belt, Vos is a megastar in her home country Holland.

Actually, Marianne Vos started in the first ever LToN in 2014 as well. She won both the prologue and the second stage in Halden, and ended 2nd on GC after her teammate Anna van der Breggen.

Those results went rather unnoticed in Norway though. But, Marit Bjørgen winning her skiing medals probably doesn’ make the biggest headlines in Holland either…

Now Vos returns to Østfold and LToN, this time as one of the big favourites. She is captain of the new WM3 Energy-team which builds on much of the old Rabobank-team.

Superstar Vos was World champion both in 2006, 2012 and 2013. She has won the ladies’ Giro d’Italia three times and has no less than 19 stage wins! Her last victory came last weekend at the BeNe Ladies Tour in Belgium where she won the GC, the points competition and two stages.

Marianne Vos is a typical cyclist who can determine races; she can sprint and she can attack if necessary. Quite similar to Norway’s star Edvald Boasson Hagen, allthough Vos has more wins . To this date she is logged with 134 professional victories!

At LToN in August Marianne Vos heads a very strong WM3-team. The overall victory clearly is a goal for them. Another card to play is the strong Polish rider Katarzyna Nieuwadoma. And for the sprints they have the former Dutch champion Anouska Koster who won the last stage in Halden in 2016. Both Moniek Tenniglo and Jeanne Korevaar have experience from the race. Also in the team is Anna Plichta.

This leaves top names like Valentina Scandolara and Australian Lauren Kitchen, a former rider at the Norwegian Hitec Products team, as substitutes.

Our eminent project manager and speaker Kjell-Erik Kristiansen has together with Visit Oestfold and the host cities created a comprehensive and informative tourist guide which describes history, activities, culture, landmarks and variety in connection to the stages and the host cities for this years Ladies Tour of Norway.

You will find the guide here.

You will also find a ink to the guide on the front page – right menu.

Norway has not had a female World champion since Monica Valen (Valvik) in 1994. But watch out for 19 year old Susanne Andersen from Stavanger, she has what it takes to become the next Norwegian Queen of cycling. Last weekend she pushed the “queen” Marianne Vos for the victory on the last stage of the BeNe Ladies Tour…

Susanne turns 19 the 23. July, and already she follows stars such as Alexander Kristoff and Sven Erik Bystrøm on the roads outside Stavanger.

– I like to train with the boys, says the young talent, who won the bronze medal at the Junior World Championships in Qatar in October. Before getting hit by a local driver on her way back to the hotel. Luckily without serious injuries.

She is now a full member of the Norwegian professional team Hitec Products and has already won respect amongst the big names. Last year she won the sprint in the peloton at the second stage of Ladies Tour of Norway in Sarpsborg, finishing second after GC winner Lucinda Brand. If there had been a U23-race for ladies at the World’s in Bergen, Susanne would definitively be one of the gold favourites.

Now she prepares for LToN, a race that she likes.
– Yes, I really like the roads around here she says, at the same time revealing that she is not fond of the steepest hills.

However, in the sprint she is a challenger to anybody, as demonstrated the last day of the BeNe Ladies Tour. Earlier this Summer she finished 5th in the Norwegian championships, and with both Emilie Moberg and Susanne Andersen at the team, Hitec Products has two cards to play if any of the stages in this year’s LToN ends in a mass sprint.

Last year ended with a 9th spot on GC for Susanne, then riding for the Norwegian national team. Together with Ingvill Gåskjenn from Horten she is the future of Norwegian female cycling – which we are confident she will demonstrate for the TV-audience and all the spectators in Ladies Tour 17-20 of August.

Ladies Tour of Norway, taking place in August, is a newcomer in the Women’s World Tour with its 4th edition of the race. In record time the race in the Norwegian region of Østfold has reached the top level of international cycling and is in fact the first ever World Tour race in Norway.
Behind the idea is the strong man Roy Moberg, leading the work under the device “In it to spin it”.

From the tiny start 4 years ago there are now four days of races, with a budget of more than NOK 6 mill, live TV-transmissions and all the world’s best ladies participating. Behind this there are thousands of hours of work – most on voluntary basis.

– We have a very good reputation in the international field and I think we are renowned as a professional and able organizer, says Moberg, who was a cross country-skier himself. Being the father of Emilie, one of Norway’s best female cyclists, the CEO of Teknotherm in Halden has turned his focus to ladies cycling.
– In Norway we have witnessed an explosion in the interest for cycling the past decade, but so far the ladies are lagging behind. Men and women cycling, like many other sports, still differ in their media attention.

Roy Moberg however is confident that we now see the beginning of something big. Of course, having a female equivalent to Thor Hushovd, Alexander Kristoff or Edvald Boasson Hagen would be most helpful in reaching the headlines, but live transmission on TV2 will make a big difference in reaching a wider audience. This will help making the cycling audience familiar with the top female athletes as well.
– I recently visited the ”Giro Rosa”, Moberg continues, and all the best female cyclists ensured me that they are really looking forward to coming to Ladies Tour of Norway in August.

Growing out of Halden
LToN – the short name of the race – started with the border city of Halden as a base. In its fourth year it has evolved to becoming a project for the whole county of Østfold, having the county government as one of the main sponsors.

– We do get enormous support from both the state and the county government, as well as from the communities and cities along the course, says Moberg, who has seen a tripling of the budget from last year’s race.
– The main reason for the increase is a rather costly TV-production. And of course, the logistics of moving from city to city each day also comes at a cost.
This year the stage finishes are in the cities of Halden, Mysen and Fredrikstad, while the starts are hosted by Halden and Sarpsborg. Actually, the last stage starts outside Halden centre, at the border bridge between Norway and Sweden.
– We did this also the first year. Starting with half the field in Norway and half in Sweden must qualify as a rather exclusive start. This year we have designed a new and interesting stage from the border bridge, crossing the border another three times before ending up in Halden again.

Live TV worldwide
Most of the work with the race rests on volunteers, but one who works the year around with LToN is the project manager Kjell-Erik Kristiansen, well-known Olympic and WCH-announcer and TV-commentator.

– We are taking one enormous step this year. The race will be transmitted live on the Norwegian broadcaster TV2 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – just like the men’s races in Norway (Tour of Norway, Tour des Fjords, and Arctic Race). We have the same production with all the same equipment, says Kristiansen, who will also be the announcer for LToN – as he will be at the upcoming World Championships in Bergen in September.
– National broadcasting is an important part of it, but there is more. We have sold the TV-rights to America, and the rest of the world can see the event live at UCI:s internet-channels. In this way, we cover the whole world, with a potential of many millions to follow LToN these days.

Expanded to 4 days
Another news is that LToN expands to 4 days this year. There will be a 3.5 km long prologue in the centre of Halden in the afternoon, Thursday 17. August. This is the same course as in the first edition 4 years ago.

This will succeeded by three road race stages of various difficulty.
Friday the riders take off in Halden and follow the lakes of Haldenvassdraget north to Ørje. From there turning west to Mysen, tackling three technical laps before crossing the finishing line. Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg will watch the race this day.
Østfold’s biggest city Fredrikstad, celebrating its 450 years anniversary this year, is the finishing town of Saturday’s stage. The start is at the very beautiful Hafslund Manor in Sarpsborg. From here the riders first go north to Svinndal and continue to Råde and Rygge before hitting the coastline down to Fredrikstad, with the finising line at the bank of the river Glomma.
Sunday’s stage is the “Queen Stage” with several crossings between Norway and Sweden. After the start at Svinesund the riders pass through the coastal town of Strömstad in Sweden before they go inland and cross the border into Norway again at Enningdalen.
Then another lap into Sweden, including a new part of 7 km gravel road before the last border crossing at Kornsjø. Both in Halden and Fredrikstad there will be three final laps in the city.

Want the people out
The organizers encourage the people in Østfold to get out in numbers and make this a big party, as the Norwegians normally do at big sporting events. This is a rare opportunity to see the best female riders in the world at close range.

In all three previous editions, the general classification winners have all been world stars. 2016 Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen won the first edition in 2014, US champion Megan Guarnier won in 2015 and former Dutch champion Lucinda Brand is the reigning champion from 2016.

In the women’s World Tour we will also see the Norwegian team Hitec Products. One of their riders is the local hope Emilie Moberg of Halden, who has had a great season so far this year.

The Dutch Boels-Dolmans team is the world’s best professional team among the ladies. This year neither of the two previous winners of LToN – Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen and the American champion Megan Guarnier – are in the line-up this far. Instead, the team puts the pressure on the 21 year old reigning World Champion Amalie Dideriksen from Denmark.

She was just 20 years when she surprised all the favourites and won the gold medal and the rainbow jersey in a tight sprint in Doha, Qatar in October. Dideriksen outsprinted the favourite Kirsten Wild of Holland and Lotta Lepistö of Finland, who both ended up on the podium as well. Actually, being just 20 years Dideriksen should be too young to be a World Champion among the seniors.

This season she has already won the World Tour race Ronde van Drenthe wearing her rainbow jersey, a jersey she will display in the Ladies Tour of Norway in August.
One of her forces is her ability to strike when it really matters. The Danish super talent became Danish champion already in 2015. Before that, she was Junior World Champion both in 2013 and 2014, so the gold in Doha 2016 was actually her third!

But representing the best team in the world means she has to justify herself between team mates Anna van der Breggen, Megan Guarnier, Lizzy Deignan, Chantal Blaak, Christine Majerus and Katarzyna Pawlowska.

Amalie won the Best Young Rider jersey at LToN in 2015, finishing as number 11 on the general classification. She was 10th on the first stage between Strömstad and Halden.

Boels Doelmans is of course one of the favourite teams this year, even without van der Breggen and Guarnier. The team has so far entered the following names in addition to Dideriksen: Chantal Blaak, Jip Van Den Bos, Amy Pieters, Christine Majerus och Karol-Ann Canual.

Boels Doelmans will of course be one of the favourite teams in this years LToN even if van der Breggen and Guarnier are not turning up. The team has so far entered the following names beside Dideriksen: Chantal Blaak, Jip Van Den Bos, Amy Pieters, Christine Majerus och Karol-Ann Canual.

Ladies Tour of Norway is just growing and growing, and now the American TV audience will have the opportunity to follow the race live via the american TV company FloSport.

This contract is a big step further for LtoN. It will not release a very high economical profit yet, but even more important, it will make Ladies Tour of Norway more public and well-known worldwide.
As a beginning, the contract is valid for 2017.

Here in Norway the race will be broadcasted live on TV2, and it will also be livestreamed via UCI’s international distribution channels.

The stages are now updated with a full description of where to go and with estimated hours for final laps and finish.

Go to “Stages” in the main menu for further description.

Ladies Tour of Norway has now signed a sponsorship agreement with the charity team Team Rynkeby, who annually cycles to Paris for the purpose of collecting money for children with cancer and their families. The money is collected through funds from benevolent sponsors.

When 1,750 athletes and 450 assistants from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland set the course against Paris in favor of the fight against childhood cancer, it is now also supported by Ladies Tour of Norway.

Previous years, we have also worked together with Team Rynkeby and the Children’s Cancer Society via our children’s race, where half of the race fee goes to this purpose. This cooperation will of course continue this year, but we have now also signed an agreement for a bronze sponsorship with Team Rynkeby.

-Ladies Tour of Norway is proud to be able to contribute and cooperate with such an important project as this is, and we hope as many children as possible will participate in the children’s races which will be arranged from 18. – 20. August in order to send as much money as possible to the Children’s Cancer Society, says Roy Moberg, Race Director of Ladies Tour of Norway.

In 2016, Team Rynkeby had 5.500 sponsors who contributed either money or services to the project. Because of these, Team Rynkeby could donate 76.9 million Norwegian crowns to the fight against childhood cancer in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Faroe Islands.

Team Rynkeby is operated on a voluntary basis, which means that the sponsors cover a large part of the necessities needed for the trip, including cars, fuel, food and beverages. Besides, the participants themselves cover their own expenses.

Team Rynkeby’s main sponsor Rynkeby Foods A/S covers the main costs of the project, which means that 100 percent of the funds collected are transferred to the child-raising organizations they cooperate with in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland.

Check out the web-site www.team-rynkeby.no for further information.