Bornholm Stage Race 2011

With the Tour de France starting today stage racing comes to the front of many sportsmans minds. While the science of cycling (wind resistance at speed, very different physiological profiles of climbers and sprints etc) makes it ideally suited to team tactics and multiple stages there are also some running stage races around.

I've got memories of the Sunlife Great Race in 1990 which I think lasted 2 weeks and was a big breakthrough event for Paul Evans. And for a few years there was a week long race in the North East of England.

Though the format seems to have fallen out of favour here there are plenty of week long race series in Europe and one of the most popular is the Etape Bornholm, held in the last week of July on the Baltic island of Bornholm (Denmark). With over 1000 runners and childrens races as well its a certainly an event to be taken seriously and this year I will be racing it for the first along with a handful of other Brits making the trip. I'm really looking forward to it and the format of 5 different surfaces/terrains adding up to a marathon distance should provide plenty of challenges.

Technology permitting I will be posting a daily report after each stage and hopefully some interviews with leading athletes. It should be a fun week !