Hitchhiking races

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There are a lot of hitchhiking races, mostly in Summer.

Europe

  • Eurizons was a hitchhiking race through Europe with about 50 participants, which took place in 2006 and 2007. It was organized by GLEN (Global Education Network) and included some workshops about the Millennium Development Goals.
  • Race to Riga was a race from Faro, Portugal, to Riga.

Belgium

  • Route du Soleil is an annual one week race for Belgian students organized since 2010, from Belgium to "one of the sunniest destination in Europe". In the summer of 2011 they will even try to break the world record of biggest hitchhiking race with 900 participants. To deal with the number of participants, the different routes have a one day shift so they don't all leave and arrive on the same date. The final winner is decided between the winners of each route during a later race. Several prizes are to be won and the organization also provides some entertainment, food and camping facilities along the way, but this all has go be paid for, the registration fee (for 2014) was a mindblowing EUR 290. And it seems you can only enter the race if you are a follower of the $uckerberg sect.
  • The Big Belgian Hitchhiking Contest was an annually event, starting in Ghent. The race is 300 to 500 km long and lasts one day. The third edition took place in October 2008 and doesn't seem to have been repeated since.

Finland

  • Hitchball 4000 is an annual hitchhiking race over a weekend around the beginning of June. It was first organized in 2013. It's based in Helsinki and so far teams have visited countries in northern and eastern Europe. The winning team is determined by the amount of kilometers they hitchhike and the distance to the farthest point they reach. Also a Spirit of Hitchball award is given to the most deserving team according to varying criteria.

France

  • The Pouce d’Or is a yearly race over a week-end in the beginning of autumn (usually the first week-end of October). The winner is the one who manages to reach the furthest point and come back before the race is over. It is organized by "Ecole Centrale de Nantes" since 2003 and gathers up to 120 people. In 2012, 3 others schools joined in (Centrale Lille, Télécom Brest and Agro Montpellier). Note: it seems other French schools/universities organize similar races but without advertising or communicating publicly. In 2015, 23 schools in total participated to the 13nd edition of this contest (including Centrale Nantes, Centrale Lille, Centrale Marseille, Audencia, EM Normandie, ESTP, Mines Saint-Etienne). More than 400 students were on the roads during this week-end.
  • The Hitchhiking Contest was an unofficial event, from Paris to Dakar in 2011.
  • The Jack Kerouac trophy organized in 2012 by the 'Binouze Hikers'. A one day race from Paris to a bar in Normandy, in which around 50 people took part. No sign it will be repeated.

Germany

  • The German hitchhiking society Abgefahren e.V. is organizing the annual German Hitchhiking Championship end of May/beginning of June since 2008. It's a one day race taking place in Germany with 80 to 100 participants. In 2012, teams had to choose 3 intermediate checkpoints among the proposed ones. It was to avoid having to many people following the same route at the same time.
  • Tramprennen is an annual hitchhike race across Europe, which takes place at the end of August since 2006. The race lasts usually two weeks and is divided into different stages. Step by step the participating teams (2 or 3 people) are getting closer to the common final destination. It also supports the charity organization [Viva con Agua] by raising funds for WASH (water, sanitation & hygiene) projects. 117 participants took part in 2012. Several other races are affiliated with tramprennen, mostly around the university Easter break period.

Hungary

  • HungaroHitch is an annual hitchhiking race over a weekend in the middle of July. First event in 2015. The two person teams have to find points in Hungary and in the neighbour countries. They have to give good answers to questions, solve tasks and collect points. The winning team collects the most points and reach the final point before the deadline. ColdHitch is their winter race at the end of November. Next race is in summer of 2016.Facebook Page

Lithuania

  • The Vilnius Hitchhiking Club has been organizing the annual Baltics competition since 1997. The competition itself pre-dates the foundation of the VHHC by two years. It takes place at the end of April, usually over a distance of around 1,000km, the last edition, Baltics 2012 attracted 33 pairs. (The record was set in 2010, when 44 pairs took part)

Netherlands

  • Duimenrace is a yearly one day hitchhiking race around the IJsselmeer, the big lake in the centre of the Netherlands.
  • AEGEE Groningen organises every year hitchhiking races to several cities in Europe, with a cultural program and a lot of going out in the night being there. Also other student associations organise or organised yearly hitchhiking contests with their (student) members.
  • The BOC organized 11 occasional races just for fun, usually starting from Utrecht, Netherlands. Club inactive since 2009.
  • Some Dutch people from Uden in the Netherlands were organizing a hitchhiking competition once a year, known in Dutch as the Liftwedstrijd.
  • There was a yearly hitchhiking race in Wommels, Friesland, starting on January 1st of a New Year.

Poland

United Kingdom

  • Bummit is a charity hitchhiking society that has been independently run & managed by students from the University of Sheffield since 2003. It is part of the Sheffield RAG (Raising & Giving) society, which falls under the jurisdiction of the University of Sheffield's Students Union. Every year it organizes a hitchhiking race, the 2016 edition will take place in March and will go to Ljubljana in Slovenia.
  • The Link Community Development organizes an annual race from the UK to Morocco and Prague for charity.

Oceania

Australia

  • The Big Green Hitch first took place in march 2013. It supports the Friends of the Earth NGO by raising funds. This edition was a one week 1000 km hitch hiking race from Melbourne to the Mouth of the Murray River (near Adelaide) along the Great Ocean Road. 14 participants took part.


Know of any other contest? Add it here!

See also hitchhiking for charity