Markagram 2024: And Then There Were Two

The Markagram began in Oslo in 2017, touted as “The Most Sinister Gravel Adventure in the World.” It was made up of five checkpoints in the shape of a pentagram, with a rugged 150+ mile mixed-terrain course, 12,000+ feet of climbing, often miserable weather, plenty of hike-a-bike through standing water and thick slop, zero support, and a tight time limit. Oh, and riders departed at sunset and had to finish by sunrise. As the event slogan goes: Prepare for Darkness!

To most, it all probably sounds atrocious. But to a certain few, with a certain mindset, it all adds up to an incredible challenge with an irresistible appeal. Each edition of the Markagram usually draws around 20-25 brave souls willing to give it a go. Many riders return year after year for another crack at it. So far, only a handful have ever completed the course inside the time limit (usually around 11 hours.) Some might say Markagram founders Alex Kloster-Jensen, Daniel Tiegen, and Andrew Schaper take great pride in the carnage of so many failed attempts. 

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There are plenty of cycling events out there these days. The Markagram is just different—on a lot of levels. At the pre-race ritual called “The Gathering,” riders draw a tarot card, have a pentagram stamped on their forehead, get blessed with a large bone, and sip a magical Norwegian Elixer from a chalice offered by a masked man standing behind a candle-lit altar. Creepy? For sure. For everyone? Probably not. All in good fun? Definitely. Event organizers have assured those who have asked: Satan does not figure into the event in any way shape or form (other than in your own imagination). A Pentagram just happens to provide a great way to lay out a course, bring something new to an increasingly cookie-cutter format of events, and provide a canvas for creativity. Several “unsubscribe” emails have been received over the years, but going out of the box is almost always going to ruffle a few feathers along the way.

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After years of running the European-only version, the Oslo based Markagram team reached out to good friends at the New York City apparel brand Search and State to bring the Markagram to the States in 2023. SAS had been a title sponsor of the event in Norway for several years already and had a reputation for running their own merciless adventure rides around the globe. It was a good match, to say the least. The teams settled on Poultney, Vermont, as home base and a proper venue to mirror some of the elements of the Norwegian forest, landscape, and terrain. They also invited Joe Cruz, a world-renowned route designer who happens to live in Vermont, to design the course. Joe is known for plotting extremely challenging routes across some of the world’s more rugged terrain and has a reputation of creating incredibly awesome and brutal (some might say sinister) rides all over the world. It was a perfect fit.

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When asked about his thinking for the Markagram course, Joe said, “Markagram Vermont has to feel viscerally like a New England autumn night, with the implication of cold and burnt orange leaves and tree limbs bent toward the moonlight. My route had the riders pedaling a 151-mile pentagram with 12,000 feet of climbing on a mix of smooth and rugged dirt, some tarmac, some mayhem sections of Class IV road. I wanted to build the course so that completing it before sunrise felt in reach but would be for most just beyond the ends of their fingertips. The goal was to enable a bicycle ride that had sense of striving, of transforming, of meeting the present with a pagan joy, of tolerance for the journey of others and for oneself, and of the echo of black metal in the forest of one’s mind.” Trippy!

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The original script from Norway was this: “As the darkness of Autumn descends on the black Norwegian forest north of Oslo we will hold an brevet unlike any other. Modeled on the Diagonales de France, this ride will scrawl a pentagram in the endless gravel network that makes up Nordmarka. As an homage to the darker sides of Norwegian culture and the depths to which the riders psyche descends, we’ve designed a course with surprises that explore these realms. Bountiful food, music and nature will be provided to distract. We only ask for your sacrifice…”  That’s pretty heady stuff, all of which the SAS team and US version would adopt.

None of the registered riders in 2023 had done the Oslo version previously, and as the cars rolled into Poultney, there was certainly a mix of emotion, excitement, and apprehension in the air. It’s not every day you pull up to an event and see organizers walking around with axes and five-foot pentagrams in hand. There was a fire going, a mysterious sugar shack with strands of yellow caution tape across the front door, smoke waffling about, and a general level of “what did I get myself into” etched into the faces of riders beginning to suit up. Cloudy skies, cool temps, it was all there.

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Pre-Race instructions are standard fare for each version of the Markagram. You must ride in the shape of the pentagram “minding the diagonals.” You must visit another opposing checkpoint after finding your matching tarot card at any checkpoint, which is a partially hidden large wooden pentagram with a bag of cards stashed somewhere nearby. You cannot visit an adjacent checkpoint next. The long way is the only way! Riders’ times are marked on brevet cards to log their progress. We should mention that the “suggested” route provided by Joe Cruz is only that: a suggestion. Riders may deviate and take any route they choose to visit all five checkpoints as long as they mind the diagonals and follow the rules. Joe’s route is advertised as neither the fastest nor slowest route possible to complete the Markagram. Joe’s instructions come with a “deviate as you dare” warning. But the ability to create personal routes and the desire to defy the odds and find a shortcut had an appeal as many riders came prepared with well-thought-out strategies about how to navigate the night.

After two runnings of Markagram VT, the casualty count is quite high. Only two riders have been able to complete the course under the time limit, with Shane Kramer from Upstate New York now the first and only rider to pull off the Marka-Double by winning two years in a row. He finished both years with about an hour to spare, which is a remarkable feat. In 2024, he formed a lethal mid-course alliance with another strong rider in Aaron Newell from New Hampshire, and they arrived in camp at 5:33 a.m. together with all five cards in hand. Shane overcame a light system failure and a minor mechanical along the way but pressed on nonetheless. Being able to overcome adversity is always going to be a Markagram necessity. Shane’s philosophy and driving attitude seems to be the secret sauce for victory, saying, “I knew we were all fucked out there, and I just needed to accept it and keeping moving forward no matter what.”

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When Search and State was pressed about their approach to the design of the event, they said they don’t have a lot of interest in copying the playbook of what is already out there and pointed out there are already plenty of great events out there with templates you can easily follow. “That goes for pretty much everything we do. If it doesn’t feel different, or we can’t put our own stamp on it and make it unique in some way, we tend to stay away no matter which way the trends are going. Copy-cat culture seems to be not just the norm these days, but sadly almost feels accepted in a lot of ways. The Markagram challenge was perfect for us. It’s the kind of thing we wish we’d dreamed up ourselves. Now that it’s in our lap we plan to take it to another level in the years to come.”

Although completing The Markagram is a monumental feat, the weekend is not just for the hardcore, soul-sacrificing maniacs who come dead-set determined to complete the course. All different walks of life and abilities have toed up to the line and all have different ambitions. Rider Andy Zolyak said, “This year, my goal was to have a better DNF than last year.” Which she did indeed accomplish. Some people only find one card, some two or three, and some take most of the next morning determined to get all five cards even though the cut-off has long passed. It seems there’s something for everyone out there in the dark. Back in the pits, a roaring fire burns all night with a lively crowd huddled around hungering for stories of disaster from the first headlamps to appear in the distance from those who have surrendered to the night and have declared “NO MAS!”

The U.S. version of Markagram 2025 will be held on September 20th. Registration opens in the spring. Follow @searchandstate to stay tuned.

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