VIA Race (Chapter III)

VIA Race is a self-navigated road ultra from Amerongen in the Netherlands to Volda in Norway, covering approximately 4,000 kilometres on tarmac roads through Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Chapter III is the third edition of the event, which started from the Netherlands in July 2026. Unlike events with fixed GPS tracks, VIA Race provides waypoints that riders must connect by planning their own route — meaning every rider's edition of the race is slightly different in mileage, terrain mix, and road quality, and creative routing and good map reading are genuine competitive tools. The concept rewards local knowledge, curiosity about the landscape, and the confidence to take roads that are not obvious. The 4,000-kilometre distance makes this one of the longest road ultras in the European calendar, comparable in length to NorthCape4000 or Race Across Quebec. The route passes through some of northern Europe's most varied cycling landscapes: the Dutch polder country, the German Baltic coast, the Danish peninsula, the Swedish coast, and the Norwegian fjords and mountains that define the final approach to Volda, a small town on the Morefjord in western Norway. The combination of extreme distance with navigational freedom makes VIA Race one of the most intellectually as well as physically demanding events in this directory.