Swedens XCO Nationals

Some things are more important than others, some mean more than others.

Jenny Rissveds won women elite

Calle Friberg won men elite.

Both very fast riders and good people but even if they rode from everyone else showing how fast it’s possible to ride, even with 27,5″ wheels they aren’t the ones that matters the most today.

Matthias Wengelin who got 3rd place I was more happy about:

And Axel Lindh who came 5th and won U23:

But the best thing today/this weekend is that Alexandra Engen is back:

A person who spreads her joy all over the place and managed to come back after a breakdown. It may be hard to get best in the world but when hitting the wall and have to restart it’s even harder. And still not back, but on a good way. And for this blog it really helps her to have one of the lightest and coolest speced hardtails out there:

This picture by David Söderblom:

Course check in Lenzerheide with Manuel Fumic

Even includes singing, let’s hope he do well on the World Cup this weekend. Go Mani!!!

190min of suffering, a.k.a. Lida Loop

No racemood, no power, no result. Felt like I was finished after 4km today, then it was 60km left. Thought of abandon the race after loop 1 but continued after I got a new bottle from David and cheered on by Niclas Andersson (best supportguy in Swedish mtb). Halfway I slipped on some wet roots and crashed, my leg and arm was hurting but didn’t see any blood (between the mud) so continued. Fredrik Winberg who I always beat passed me and so did Martin. Thought of abandon after loop 2.

Passed the start/finish area and got a new bottle from David. Said it was sucked but continued. Was burping my rear tire on a descend and felt a bit soft. 0,9-1 bar something when I stopped and felt. Rode easily and borrowed a pump from a guy standing on the side and pumped up to like 1,2. Continued.

Passed 10km to go and I calculated a finish time around 3h15min, not under 2h57min that I wanted. Didn’t see the 5km sign but a 4 and then the 2 came pretty fast. Passed 1km to go and passed a couple of guys. Ended with a climb up the ski slope and passed 3 more riders. Thought I was halfway up but where all the way so closed my skinsuit and rolled over the finish line.

It felt like shit, disappointed with the time. But happy with the finish, a finish is so much better than a DNF. 3h10min.

Big thanks to David from Specialized Concept Store Stockholm for super feeding. Thanks to all my friends making my hard life a bit easier. SCS Racing Team got 2 3rd places today too. Axel Lindh in men elite and Carolin Holmqvist in women elite 😀 Fredrik ”Seglarn” Edin won men elite and Åsa Erlandsson women elite.

Me, Jaime (who beat me with 11min) and the great Axel Lindh by Jesper Andersson

My skinsuit was just fantastic today. Great fit, great padding and so right functions 😀 Even so I think of racing more just to be able to use it 😉

Lidingöloppet MTB

First race of the year and first marathon race. 63km around the island Lidingö outside Stockholm. Today we where there with work for full support for SCS Racingteam:

SCS Racingteam with the fastest Matthias Wengelin and Axel Lindh in the men’s category and Jessica Clarén in the womens category. Today also the multisportteam Peak Performance with Marika Wagner as biggest hope with us. A fun and long day that already started with a prepare at Specialized Concept Store Stockholm yesterday evening.

And seeing the fastest group including both Matthias Wengelin and Axel Lindh was super:

Fredrik Edin in the middle on a Scott Scale hardtail. It was really a hardtailcourse with a lot of ups and downs. I usually use my bike with my damper open or in Trailmode but today my rear damper was in Climbmode most of the time. Even the forest sections was flat. Was just a couple of technical parts on the hole course so my Camber wasn’t a great choice of bike.

But it felt pretty good. Went out a bit to hard but slowed down after 10km and found the flow. After like 35km I got some power to and I could press on, long time it felt like this and got a bit happy dropping some riders that tried to hold my wheel 😉 At 40km Annie missed to give me a bottle but got a big one from David. Apologise to everyone that I rode with a big bottle. 😉 At around 50km we where 4 riders riding together. First it was me and a guy on my wheel but another one caught us and we sat on his wheel. Went a bit slower so one caught us from behind. Was a bit slow so attacked in a climb. I didn’t have the legs and my back had started to hurt but did my best and that’s the point with todays race.

Had a plan for today. 1: Get as good racetraining as I can for Billingeracet next weekend.

2: Beat Johan Raud and Jessica Clarén (she started 2min earlier than me).

The third that I found out during the race was that I need to tune my dampers more ahead of a marathon race, was way to soft for todays easy course.

Rode with Johan (a good customer at work) for a while but he was to strong for me, almost caught him in the middle but was to weak. Caught Jessica at around 35km and it boosted my confidence. (she had a bad stomach).

Ended up 83rd of 167 in my category at a time of 2h37min. More stats: Movescount

Jessica ended 6th, Marika 4th after a protest. Felicia Ferner won over Åsa Erlandsson and Ellinor Huusko in the women’s category.

In the men’s category Matthias Wengelin won ahead of Fredrik Edin and Axel Lindh.

Great day with great support from Specialized Concept Store Stockholm and Cykelspecialisten.  Now time to refuel for tomorrows happening with Specialized Women and She Rides.

Jenny Rissveds and Matthias Wengelin Swedish XCE champions

A lot of races a Hallby today where the Swedish National XCE Championship was held with blue skies. Hoped for Alexandra Engen to win but thought Jenny Rissveds would take it. Engen is much more tactical but it doesn’t always work, Jenny is just fast 😉

1. Jenny Rissveds – Falu CK

2. Alexandra Engen – Jönköpings CK

3. Kajsa Snihs – IK Jarl Rättvik

In the mens category I hoped for Emil Lindgren but Matthias Wengelin was faster than everyone today and even not having such a good qualify run he won it 😉

1. Matthias Wengelin – SCS Racingteam CK

2. Emil Lindgren – CK Naten Säter

3. Axel Lindh – SCS Racingteam CK

All the results is available here: MTBSM