I came back home on Monday night from Czech republic where I did a UCI (2.2) stage race with the Swedish national team. It was a fun trip with some good results for Sweden. We were 6 girls in the national team and another 4 in other teams, so 10 Swedes on the start line and everyone finished the tour. We got a second and two third places through Monica and Sara, well done girls! It was my third year at the same race, so I am starting to recognise the routs now.
After Falu 3-dagars I got a really bad cold, was in bed the whole Monday and we were leaving on Tuesday for Czech so was not sure if I could go. I felt better on Tuesday and got better and better during the long trip and am happy that I went since I felt well on Thursday when the races started. Even though I don’t think that I could perform on top, I am not happy with the results since I did better on this race last year and I think that I have taken a step forward this year…. This is how the stages went:
Stage 1 – 105km
It was an undulating course, some hills but no real mountains, two hill sprints so the legs got to do some hard work. I tried to be active and my legs felt fine, I went on a few attacks and got away in a break for a little while but nothing that lasted. It was a group that got away and stayed away until the finish with 11 girls, no one from the national team. This races finishes with a 1 km steep hill with cobble on the end, it is a really hard hill! Even though it was a bunch at the start of the hill it was chattered at the end. I was number 37 this day out of 112 girls that started.
Results after stage 1:
1 Marianne Vos (Ned) DSB Bank - LTO 2.47.14
2 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 0.08
3 Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Selle Italia Ghezzi 0.14
9 Veronica Andreasson (Swe) Bigla Cycling Team 1.26
21 Karin Aune (Swe) Swedish National Team 2.52
28 Sara Mustonen (Swe) Swedish National Team 2.59
37 Jennie Stenerhag (Swe) Swedish National Team
39 Madelene Olsson (Swe) Swedish National Team
51 Isabelle Söderberg (Swe) Team Hitec Products UCK 3.15
63 Monica Holler (Swe) Bigla Cycling Team 3.33
77 Catrine Josefsson (Swe) Swedish National Team 4.11
85 Marie Lindberg (Swe) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 10.46
92 Jessica Kihlbom (Swe) Swedish National Team 12.44
Stage 2 – 125km – Mountainstage
The second stage consisted of four mountains, the first of about 8 km and teared the bunch completely apart. I started off well but lost my little bunch a bit from the top and 4 other girls caught me, among them were Madde from the national team, we were together at the top and I was hoping that we could catch the bunch that I lost, but instead other small bunches caught us from behind and we ended up being a bunch of about 40 girls and no one wanted to work, so it was just transport over the next three mountains to the finish. A bit boring. The finish was on top of a 800 meters really steep hill, so legs had to work hard again at the end. I finished as number 44 today.
Total after two stages:
1. Trixie Worrack (GER) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 6.25.19
2. Fabiana Luperini (ITA) Selle Italia-Ghezzi 0.02
3. Marianne Vos (NED) Bank-Nederland Bloite 2.16
10. Karin Aune, Sverige 5.25
42. Veronica Andreasson, Bigla Cycling Team 23.20
44. Jennie Stenerhag, Sverige 24.41
45. Madelene Olsson, Sverige 24.44
48. Sara Mustonen, Sverige 24.53
57. Isabelle Söderberg, Team Hightech Products UCK 25.09
71. Catrine Josefsson, Sverige 26.16
74. Marie Lindberg, Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 32.26
78. Monica Holler, Bigla Cycling Team 35.02
88. Jessica Kihlbom, Sverige 45.50
Stage 3 – 19km Time trail
This was the stage that I was looking forward to the most since I like time trail and I got to try my new bike for the first timeJ At the same time I was a bit nervous since I hadn’t had time to train on it at all. It went well and I felt that I got good power in the legs and the bike felt fine. I averaged 40,7km/h and got a 23rd place on the stage, I am happy with that.
Results Time Trail
1 Amber Neben (USA) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 25.33 (42.278 km/h)
2 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 0.09
3 Linda Villumsen (Den) Team Columbia Highroad Women 0.42
4 Marianne Vos (Ned) DSB Bank - LTO 0.44
20 Karin Anne (Swe) Swedish National Team 2.17
22 Marie Lindberg (Swe) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 2.22
23 Jennie Stenerhag (Swe) Swedish National Team 2.25
26 Catrine Josefsson (Swe) Swedish National Team 2.39
37 Madelene Olsson (Swe) Swedish National Team 3.04
40 Isabelle Söderberg (Swe) Team Hitec Products UCK 3.21
45 Veronica Andreasson (Swe) Bigla Cycling Team 3.40
48 Sara Mustonen (Swe) Swedish National Team 3.46
56 Monica Holler (Swe) Bigla Cycling Team 4.04
64 Jessica Kihlbom (Swe) Swedish National Team 4.19
Stage 4 – 70km
This stage was in the afternoon after the TT and we did laps on a 8,5km course. It was a really high speed from the start, on the third lap 8 girls got away, among them were Monica and Sara from Sweden. The speed went down in the bunch for a little while but soon it was up again, Nurnberg that had the leading jersey did not want the gap to be too big so they worked really hard. Monica managed a second place and Sara a third in the sprint. The bunch finished about one minute later and I was number 29J
Results after four stages:
1 Trixi Worrack (GER), Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung 8:34:32
2 Fabiana Luperini (ITA), Selle Italia Ghezzi 02:38
3 Marianne Vos (NED), DSB Bank-Nederland Bloeit 02:51
11 Karin Aune, Sverige 11:33
39 Veronica Andreasson, Bigla Cycling Team 26:51
40 Jennie Stenerhag, Sverige 26:57
41 Sara Mustonen, Sverige 27:22
44 Madelene Olsson, Sverige 27:49
48 Isabelle Söderberg, Team Hightech Products UCK 28:21
50 Catrine Josefsson, Sverige 28:53
67 Marie Lindberg, Equipe Nürnberger Versicheriung 34:39
70 Monica Holler, Bigla Cycling Team 37:47
76 Jessica Kihlbom, Sverige 50:11
Stage 5 – 100 km
Last day was a lap again, around the city of Orlova, the lap was about 16 km and a very nice course with some small hills, narrow roads, wide roads, bends and some tricky parts, so a bit of everything. The race unfolded a bit like yesterday, high speed from the beginning, the Swedish team was very active, we attacked and went on everything that happened. Finally a group of 15 got a way and we had Sara there again. She got another third place. The rest of us came with the bunch a few minutes later. I was 30 on the stage and finished 40 overall.
General classification:
1 WORRACK Trixi (GER) Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung 11:08:48
2 LUPERINI Fabiana (ITA) Selle Italia Ghezzi 02:15
3 VOS Marianne (NED) DSB Bank-Nederland Bloeit 02:21
13 AUNE Karin National team Sweden 10:17
33 MUSTONEN Sara National team Sweden 26:10
39 ANDRÉASSON Veronica Bigla cycling team 29:35
40 STENERHAG Jennie National team Sweden 29:41
43 OLSSON Madelene National team Sweden 30:33
46 SÖDERBERG Isabelle Team Hitec Products UCK 31:05
48 JOSEFSSON Catrine National team Sweden 31:37
62 LINDBERG Marie Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung 37:23
65 HOLLER Monica Bigla cycling team 40:31
68 KIHLBOM Jessica National team Sweden 52:52
After the last stage we started the long journey back home, I was in the car for 25 hours + 6 hours of sleepJ Left there at 4pm on Sunday and came home at 11.15pm on Monday evening! Sweden is such a long country!!
