NORDKAPP CLASSIC RAID
JUNE 3-16, 2023
Italy-Nordkapp Continental Classic Raid
2023 Edition
Let’s go to the start. 100 crews from all over Europe shouting in unison “Nordkapp! Nordkapp!“; Just a moment and immediately after, riding your Vespa and together with your new and eccentric traveling companions, you face the curves that lead you to the most beautiful and evocative terrace in Florence, Piazzale Michelangelo. The ideal setting to give life to the Greatest Adventure of your life.
The tension goes away with the first kilometers, on the sides of the road curious glances accompany the train that has just started and inside your heart, common to all the other crews, there is a geographical point that smells of conquest: Nordkapp.
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 Florence and the magnificent atmosphere of the Renaissance heading north, crossing the Apennines and heading 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 track that runs alongside the River Inn will give you the chance to enjoy a fast and relaxing landscape before having to tackle the climbs, immersed in the forest, which will take you to 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 Checkpoint number 1: 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, it is an experience that you will only interrupt for an ice-cold beer and a few chats with your fellow travelers.
Just 1.000 km and, riding your Vespa, 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 Nordkapp Classic Raid 2023.
The time to taste a succulent currywurst and get the stamp of Checkpoint 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 Nordkapp Classic Raid is an Extraordinary Human Experience that turns an impossible vision into reality. That’s what you’re here for.
There are still 240 kilometers 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 kilometers 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 our fairytale becomes reality. You will marvel together for a beauty that at home, for 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 tires of your Vespa, 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 Checkpoint number 3.
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 kilometer after kilometer. 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 Vespa, 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 of Checkpoint number 4.
Now, no one can distract you from the surrounding wonder. It’s the last 750km to the Nordkapp 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.
triumph of the nature : LAPland
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 rolling road that gets lost in unspoiled nature, no cars and no loud noise, except the consoling and familiar one of your Vespa. No anxiety and no worries because these things simply belong to a life that is 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 Vespa, 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.
Nordkapp. The sum of it all.
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 NordKapp Classic Raid is open to different philosophies and in 2023 you will be free to cover the route with maximum freedom and you can get to NordKapp whenever you want, enjoying the event and its magical atmosphere in every aspect.
However, you should know that, in order to get the 2023 Finisher Qualification and be placed in the Order of Arrival divided by category, it is necessary to complete the track in a time window open from june 13 to june 16, 2023.
In any case, be sure, whatever your arrival time, you will experience something epic and memorable.
CHECKPOINT 2023
For the 2023 edition of the NordKapp Classic Raid there are 4 checkpoints along the route. These are strategically placed in areas of geographical or cultural significance. At each Checkpoint, crews will be asked to validate their travel. If, for whatever reason, any or all of the checkpoint are missed the crew will be automatically disqualified.
The 4 checkpoints are listed below:
C1 – Munchen (Germany)
C2 – Berlin (Germany)
C3 – Stockholm (Sweden)
C4 – Rovaniemi (Finland)
Ferries 2023
The only ferries permitted during the NordKapp Classic Raid 2023, to be booked at the discretion of the crews, are those listed below:
Rostock (Germany) / Trelleborg (Sweden)
Stockholm (Sweden) / Turku (Finland)
Any other sea routes are forbidden.
