NorthCape4000 Edition V 2022
In 2021, the NorthCape4000 was the only cycling event in the world in the UltraDistance Adventure sector and with multiple border crossings (10 borders) to start regularly. This is an extraordinary result that testifies to the standards and quality of the event and that we all used as a solid starting point for imagining and planning the 2022 V Edition.
2022 NorthCape4000 V Edition.
With 120 pre-registered participants coming from India, South America, UK and USA, plus 200 new Riders ready to bite the road, the 2022 NorthCape4000 V edition will see an incredible 320 athletes on the start line, keeping its status as the World’s most popular Ultradistance Cycling Adventure.
Save the date, July 23, 2022. Adrenaline, excitement and joy. Cycling enthusiasts following the event from 130 countries around the world and participants from more than 40 nations. This is what awaits you and this is where you must be ready to live an Experience that will change the vision of your whole world.
You will be surprised again by the simplicity and beauty of life thanks to scenic roads and breathtaking sunsets, incredible encounters and 3800 kilometres of road shared with trusted friends you have only been waiting to meet. With 6 countries ready to welcome you and 700 kilometres less than the 2021 edition, 2022 will see the fastest route in the Great North, with around 3800 kilometres in total to the North Cape.
Let’s go to the start. More than 320 people from all over the world shouting in unison “NorthCape! NorthCapeee!“; you can feel the air filled with power and an extraordinary, contagious collective euphoria; it’s a moment and you’re pedalling with your new companions. Your legs loosen up and your anxiety goes away; you are cycling through languages from all over the world and you have a goal in mind that makes your heart beat faster: the North Cape. Trust us, the start of your Great Adventure will also be the exact moment when you forget who you were a moment before, perhaps forever.
You will leave Rovereto and the poetic atmosphere of Lake Garda and head north towards the Alps. Hay-scented landscapes and small streams at the side of the road will lead you first to one of the largest and most fragrant fruit orchards in Europe, the Val Venosta, and then to the border between Italy and Austria, with Lake Resia and its characteristic church steeple emerging from its waters.
In the Austrian Tyrol, the route alongside the Inn River will give you a chance to loosen up your legs for good before tackling the forested climb into Bavaria, Germany. Just in this undulating landscape that touches tiny country villages smelling of butter and jam, you will begin to feel the pleasure of getting the first stamp at Gate number 1 of Edition V: Munich.
A lot of beer at MarienPlatz, orderly beauty and immense green parks in which to rest your eyes, but Munich, the Bavarian capital, is much more. It’s time to set off again and, with the majestic Englisher Garten park behind, you head north again.
Now, the winding Bavarian countryside accompanies you on an uninterrupted parade of sunlit wheat fields and small, shady forests that open the door to the federal state of Saxony. The richest region in the former GDR, nicknamed ‘Silicon Saxony’ for its technology, is an ultra-fast cycling experience that you will stop only for an ice-cold beer and a few chats with your fellow travellers.
Just 1.000 km and, riding your bike, you will enter one of the most modern and casual European capitals you could imagine. You’ll pass the world’s most popular zoo, then the Victory Column, the Brandenburg Gate with its poetic Hotel Adlon, once a free port for spies and love stories, and finally the iconic Alexander Platz.
Everything here is history, everything is charm. Berlin, the only city in the world that has lived two lives and embodied two identities, is the new, glittering star of the NorthCape4000 Edition V 2022.
The time to taste a succulent currywurst and get the stamp of Gate number 2 and, like the most powerful of fluids, you will begin feeling a strange awareness, as if the world is your oyster. A feeling that only dreamers are lucky enough to be able to experience because, trust us, the NorthCape4000 is an Extraordinary Human Experience that turns an impossible vision into reality. That’s what you’re here for.
There are still 240 kilometres to go, but there is a new, balsamic scent in the air now, wafting through Mecklenburg and coming from Rostock. As powerful as the sirens’ call, it is the penetrating, slightly peaty essence of the Baltic Sea. A unique panorama that speaks with the voice of the wind and seagulls screeching in the sky while behind you, lost in the foam of the ship taking you to Sweden, is Germany leaving.
A handful of kilometres of blue beyond the Baltic Sea and the yellow signs for the Elks crossing finally await you: welcome to Sweden. Small red houses made of wood dot the sides of the road, rivers of endless forests and the emotion of being in pure and wild land: Scandinavia, by definition Mother Nature in its most welcoming and sumptuous guise.
And it is precisely in this part of the world that every year, like a magic that never runs out, our fairytale becomes reality. Hundreds of people from all over the world marvel together at a beauty that we are unable to live at home, due to the absurd speed of our lives or because we are simply distracted by useless things.
1900 km have gone by under your wheels. Half the track is history and the tyres of your bike, like the wrinkles on the faces of fishermen, show the signs of time and the elements. The value of your achievement is everywhere, even in the details. The beautiful Stockholm, nicknamed the Venice of the North, with its grim and welcoming atmosphere and its lights reflected in the canals, welcomes you at Gate number 3 of Edition V.
A tremendous sight.
It’s time to set sail once again and the destination, if ever it were possible, is even more enchanting: you are going to Finland. Now, try to imagine a land of deserted lakes where endless clouds make the sky a perpetual, hypnotic prospect. Hours of light getting longer and a night that fades kilometre after kilometre. The route towards the Great North is a beam of light that warms your body and soul and that you will not be able to do without. There is such a thing as “Mal d’Africa”, it’s true, but you will find that it is nothing compared to the attraction of the Terrestrial Poles.
With almost all of Finland now behind you, you’ll be a completely new person when, riding your bike, you go past the sign that reads “wooded hill” in Sami language or, if you read it in Finnish, “pile of stones”. This is Rovaniemi, the gateway to the Arctic Circle and home to the NorthCape4000’s most popular gate, gate number 4.
Now, no one can distract you from the surrounding wonder. It’s the last 750km to the North Cape and nothing, we assure you, will remain more indelible in your eyes than the pristine, crystal-clear beauty of these fairytale Arctic landscapes. The Lappish landscape is a right that you have earned and that no one can take away from you. A right that will accompany you for the rest of your life.
As you pass by dreamy places like Saariselka and the fantastic Lake Inari, it’s time to cross the last border at Karigasniemi, the one that brings Norway as a dowry. 100 km of beautiful undulating road that fades into unspoilt nature, no cars, no loud noises, no worries, these things belong to a life that is simply no longer yours.
Lakselv. For the umpteenth time, a completely new landscape opens up before you, namely Porsangerfjord and the Barents Sea. It is the Arctic, in its purest and most authentic interpretation. From your bike, you will enjoy lunar panoramas and inlets that follow the ancestral rhythm of the tides while, in front of you, families of reindeer graze undisturbed everywhere. Stockfish drying in the wind and fishermen’s outposts, the scent of seaweed and the end of the world.
You are alive, and incredibly lucky..
Mageroya. The last fjord, the one that the North Cape offers you, is an experience that few people have been lucky enough to experience, especially by bike. Ruthless and primordial in beauty, this spur of rock overlooking the Barents Sea opens the door to Dreams and Imagination. This is the ultimate challenge, the most sublime and coveted one.
The North Cape. The sum of it all.
If you come here to participate in a simple sporting event or to thwart an Extraordinary Human Experience that happens only once in a lifetime for many people, take our advice, don’t do it. The NorthCape4000 is probably not for you.
There are a lot of fanatical sporting events that don’t bring any added value to people’s lives, they are the majority.
Our goal has always been a different one: to make you become the person that you have always wanted to be through One of the Most Incredible Human Experiences on Earth today.
And trust us, we succeed every year.
Expect the best, this is the NorthCape4000..
The time limit. Because here, the word Finisher, is not just a simple word.
Designed to give everyone the opportunity to live an extraordinary human experience, the NorthCape4000 has been open to different philosophies and performances since its inception, so even in 2022 you will continue to be free to cover the path with maximum freedom and you can get to North Cape whenever you want, enjoying the event and its magical atmosphere in every aspect.
However, you should know that, in order to get the title of Edition V Finisher and be placed in the order of arrival, you must complete the route by August 13, 2022.
In any case, be sure, whatever your arrival time, you will experience something epic and memorable.
Gates
For the 2022 edition V of the NorthCape4000 there are 4 Gates (checkpoints) along the route. These are strategically placed in areas of geographical or cultural significance. At each Gate, participants will be asked to validate their travel. If, for whatever reason, any or all of the gates are missed the participant will be automatically disqualified.
The 4 Gates (checkpoints) are listed below:
- G1 – Munchen (Germany)
- G2 – Berlin (Germany)
- G3 – Stockholm (Sweden)
- G4 – Rovaniemi (Finland)
Ferries
The only ferries permitted during the NorthCape4000 Edition V 2022, to be booked at the discretion of the participants, are those listed below:
- Rostock (Germania) / Trelleborg (Svezia)
- Stoccolma (Svezia) / Turku (Finlandia)
Any other sea routes are forbidden.