Since the Swedish Champs was so far away from where I stay in Sweden, I stayed with some other friends (thank you Åsa and Joakim!!) down south for a week until it was time for the last race of this season. Bockstensturen in Varberg, a beautiful small town by the sea, start and finish was next to the old castle!
After a week of sunshine the rain started the day before the race and on race day it was pouring down making it muddy and slippery and difficult to see anything!
It was nice to do a race in my new Swedish jersey, one advantage is also the starting position in front of the elite men;). My biggest competition on the day was Åsa, the girl who came 2nd at the champs. My plan was to be as far forward as possible on the tar the first 8km and then try to keep her behind, at the same time as I was going to save some energy incase she caught me. My plan worked very well:-). I sat close to the front in the big bunch when we left the tar and hit the gravel and I pushed everything I had. Unfortunately I lost a mens bunch and then another one…. So at the half way mark I was basically on my own and not many riders came from behind. Only one guy that told me Åsa was about 1,5 minute behind, I got a bit nervous since that is not a lot of time incase she had some help from some guys. I really had to dig deap in the strong head wind to take the win. After when I saw the split times I could see that I had increased the lead slowly but surely with around 10-20 seconds at every time check.
It is always nice to win, even though this was a especially nice since I defended my win in this race from last year and it was also a good feeling to win in the Swedish champs jersey! :-)
I also finished 2nd overall in the Swedish Marathon series for 2013.
That was that for the Swedish season, time to head back to South Africa on Friday! See you all South Africans then!!
Got to stand in front of the start shutes:-)
The following pictures comes from Hallands Nyheter.
I got the biggest trophy ever!! And no, it is not a floating trophy so I got to keep it! And no, I am not taking it back to South Africa;) It has to stay with my parents:-)