Vennbahn 250
After a succesfull first edition, the Vennbahn 250 is back!
A Longboard race through 3 countries on one of the smoothest tracks!
The Vennbahn is probably one of the best paths for distance skating out there. Join this race and you will skate through 3 countries, see the beautiful surrounding of the Eifel, enjoy some of the smoothest pavement out there.
Inspired from ultra endurance running, the Vennbahn 250 is a 250km out and back race on a longboard. You have 36 hour's time to complete this challenge. This allows you to have enough time to skate through the day and sleep in the night. Or challenge yourself and try to skate the fastest out and back time for the complete Vennbahn without any sleep!
Join the Vennbahn 250, join the longest open road race!
Your support is highly appreciated
Help us out at the 75km refill Station. Last year this event couln't have been run without the helping hands of some wonderfull people! They stayed at the support station, helped out the skaters coming in, redirecting skaters that were on the wrong track, and in between celebrated! They made the event possible. Please reach out to me if you want to help out for 2025 years edition.
We are currently searching for sponsors aswell.
Meetup 17 may 7:00
Triererstr. 1 Aachen
You will gather your:
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GPS trackers
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Give your Bag to the Support crew
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Join the Safety and organization meeting
Race starts 8:00
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KM 75: Refill your food and nutrition at the refill station
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KM 125: Skate to the end of the vennbahnweg in troisvierges
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Either camp there or turn around and skate back
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KM 175: Refill your food and nutrition at the refill station again
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KM 250: Finish the complete Vennbahn 250!
Race ends 18 may 20:00
Enjoy final meetup at a local restaurant for food, drinks and throphee ceremony!
The Vennbahnweg originally was a railway. Now they've paved this. As a great side effect the roads have mellow inclines and declines. This is great for distance skating! Still, you are going to face 3600m of up and down skating. While the long mellow uphill's might be exhausting, the long mellow downhills will be an enjoyable reward!
To make sure you are covered with enough nutrition, there will be a bag system available. You can pack a bag with extra gear, food, drinks. It will be brought to the refill station at km 75. Going out and back you pass this point twice.
A handful of potatoes and some water every hour will keep you going!
Mandatory Packing List
Mobile Phone:
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Extra power bank/s with at least 7500 mAh total.
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Charging cables
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Route saved on the phone.
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Skaters must be reachable at any time before, during and after the race.
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Airplane mode is forbidden.
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Emergency phone number must be saved.
Nutrition:
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Water reserve: from start and every refill station the skater must leave with at least 3l of water.
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Food reserve: from start and every refil station the skater must leave with at least 800 kcal of food (about 4 bars).
Clothes:
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Additional warm second upper layer.
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Long legged trousers.
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Rain Jacket.
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Helmet.
Accessories:
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Survival Blanket.
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ID/Passport and health insurance card.
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At least 20 euros cash just in case.
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One or multiple lamps that will run at least a total of 8 hours.
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It's forbidden to skate without light through the night (the vennbahn is very dark).
Non mandatory recommendations:
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Sunscreen.
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Sunglasses.
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Desinfection spray.
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Plasters/ patches.
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If rain in forecast: waterproff backpack-cover.
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tisues.
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MK Horn ;) (it's really practical to have some form of bell or horn on am open road for this long).
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Cable for gps watch.
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Small towel.
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Individual medicine if needed.
Everyone will get a GPS tracker for this event. Additionally:
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A sports watch is highly recommended. Adjust the settings so that your watch can track for this period. Plan in to maybe charge your watch.
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To Prove you've arrived at the destination selfies must be taken at the end of the Vennbahn in Troisvierges and the end of the race in Aachen.
If you want to sleep be sure to bring your tent, mat and sleeping bag! You can add this to your bag to pick up at the refill station so don't have to carry this all the way.
If you you want to sleep inside check out camping Troisvierges (https://www.camping-troisvierges.lu/). They have small cabins available at the end of the Vennbahn. Make sure to contact them beforehand about renting the cabin.
