I have now been inSwedenfor 3 weeks, I want to say home but the question is always there – where is home?? It is very nice to be here to see friends and family that I have not seen for 9 months!
The day before I leftSouth AfricaI got to celebrate my birthday there for the first time ever (the last 2 years I have had my birthday inSpainat cycling races). I really appreciated everyone that made it special!
I finally arrived in Falun after a 29 hours journey with delays and without sleep, I was finished! I had one day to recover before the alarm went off at 4.45am on Sunday morning, it was time to drive back toStockholm(3hours) for a MTB Marathon, in retrospect I now understand that it might not have been the best preparation! On top of that my back shock was at the softest at all time AND we had not tightened the saddle enough after the flight so I was sinking all the time and had to stop and fix that on a few occasions. So neither leg, head or bike worked! Just not my day!!
I got a few very relaxing days at home to meet my family and friends again, I needed that to recharge the batteries!
Last weekend we had the Swedish Championship outside of Stockholm. The road race was on Sunday on a very hard course. We did a lap of 9,5km which included 3 hills, maybe not so long but after 12 laps and 36 hills you could feel it in your legs!! Emma attacked already on the first hill, about 1 or 2 minutes after the neutral start!! So full gas from the start! A few attacks on the first 2 laps and eventually Isabelle got away solo and just after Emilia and Emma attacked to bridge to her. We ended up being a group of 8 chasing behind. We had 4 riders from Alriksson GoGreen so I was expecting them to attack but nothing happened. On the second last lap me and Malin put the hammer down on one of the hills and we lost 3 riders. So we were 5 girls coming to the finish racing for 4th. I did not manage to pass the last one on the final straight so finished 5th at the champs. I was happy with that.
1 JOHANSSON Emma Härnösands CK 3:12:27
2 FAHLIN Emilia Örebrocyklisterna 3:13:14 0:47
3 SÖDERBERG Isabelle Ramnäs CK 3:14:58 2:31
4 FREDÄNG Linéa Alrikssons Go:Green CK 3:20:50 8:23
5 STENERHAG Jennie Falu CK
6 NILSSON Hanna Alrikssons Go:Green CK
7 LINDBERG Marie Åstorps CK 3:20:53 8:26
8 RYDLUND Malin Åhus Cykelklubb 3:20:58 8:31
2 days later it was time to go back toStockholmfor the Time Trail. Usually that’s my favourite discipline but this time I did not feel as prepared as before. My last Time trail ended at the hospital, and when I took the bike for a spin about a week before the handlebar was still skewed from the crash…
I followed my plan to start a bit slower not to hit the wall and then speed up after the turn around point. It worked well… until Malin passed me! She started 2 min behind me and we used to be very equal at time trailing. The motivation hit the bottom when that happened… So finished 6th which might not be too bad but I am not happy with the way I rode. Malin got silver and I am very impressed and happy for her!
1 JOHANSSON Emma Härnösands CK 39:37,9
2 RYDLUND Malin Åhus Cykelklubb 40:02,4 0:24,5
3 FAHLIN Emilia Örebrocyklisterna 40:25,7 0:47,8
4 LINDBERG Marie Åstorps CK 41:57,6 2:19,7
5 KARLSSON Kajsa CK Cykelcity.se 42:27,9 2:50,0
6 STENERHAG Jennie Falu CK 42:43,4 3:05,5
