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Inline Skating Across the Oresund Bridge
Photo Gallery 1
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Race Across the Oresund Bridge
from Denmark to Sweden
Photos from June 10, 2000
Part 1 of 4 -
Before the Race
Copyright © 2000 by Joakim Wassberg
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About the Event
The Oresund Bridge, that runs between Denmark and Sweden,
was opened for the first time on July 1, 2000.
Brorullet, the June 10, 2000 inline skating
race across that bridge was
part of a 4-day grand opening celebration June 9-12, 2000 in
the two cities on each end of the bridge: Copenhagen and Malmo.
There were four days of music and dancing and racing
across the bridge, for runners,
walkers, cyclists, and inline skaters.
On July 8 I flew to Copenhagen in Denmark to
participate in the inline skating event.
Before the Race
The best thing that happened to me before the race, was
being recognized by two skaters from
SSSK, an ice and inline skating club
in Stockholm. I should qualify that by saying they
recognized my SkateGRRL T-shirt and my pink skates. But
it was still exciting to be recognized 5,000 miles away
from home! Those two skaters are on my
*gold* list now.
But I regret one thing - in the excitement of the moment,
I didn't get a photo of me with each of those skaters.
Another missed opportunity!
Waiting for the Bus from Sweden to Denmark
The race was suppose to start at 6:00 p.m.
but the first group of skaters - the Pros - didn't start
until almost 8:00 p.m. That wasn't as bad as it sounds,
because in that part of the world, it doesn't get dark
in June until about 10:30 p.m. And it gave me plenty of
time to meet people and take lots of pictures.
The reason the race started late was pretty interesting.
All day long before the evening race, people were walking
back and forth across the bridge. I heard they had twice
as many walkers as they expected - about 100,000 instead
of 50,000 - and they couldn't bus them off the bridge quickly
enough for the inline race to begin at the expected time.
But there's more! It was so hot on the day of the race, that
the asphalt on the bridge was to soft for the buses. So
guess what they had to do? They spread sand all over the bridge!
And this is right before the inline race. This was the real
delay, because before we could skate across, all the sand had
to be removed.
I really didn't mind any of this one bit, because it did give me
more time to meet people. And how could I be upset, when the things that
caused all the trouble were #1: too many people wanted to
participate in this bridge opening celebration, and #2: the
day was just too warm and beautiful for the asphalt on the
bridge. It really was warmer in Sweden that week than it was
in Southern California before I left home.
It was an amazing day!
The Bus to the Starting Line
I was in one of the first groups delivered to
the starting line after the Pro skaters.
From the bus window we could see the lead pack skate
by us on the bridge.
The Starting Line
Brorullet Photos:
Part 1 -
Before the Race
Part 2 -
Starting the Race
Part 3 -
Finishing the Race
Part 4 -
Making Friends
MORE ABOUT SKATING IN SWEDEN
Brorullet Article
(March 20, 2000)
Inline Skating in Sweden
Inline Skating in Scandinavia
PHOTOS:
The Slalom Skaters of Göteborg
The Visby/Tofta Path - Gotland Island
A Day of Skating on Fårö Island
A Day of Skating in Stockholm
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