Jennie Stenerhag

Latest news

Overall victory in Kalas cup (Swedish national series)

2010-09-05

I was very surprised on Friday morning when I came to the Velodrome to meet the others to travel down to the island of Orust, and I saw a big 50 person big buss! I had asked if they had space and expected a van or minibus. We travelled for 7 hours and got there just in time for the first start on Friday evening.

This was a 3 day stage race with 4 stages and it was the last race in the national series (Kalas cup). We got points for every stage and for the overall, so lots of points to race for. Before this weekend I was in the lead by 6 points, for a stage win was 5 points so it was a hard fight at every stage!!

First stage was a 1.1km long hill time trail. I really like these things and was feeling good before the start. I got extra support from Marianne and Stig that I met a few years ago in South Africa, they had come to watch me race!! Not much to say about the race, I did everything I could and it felt horrible even though it was fast! A thing like this does not feel good, it hurts!! I won 3 seconds ahead of Malin and 10 seconds before Jessica in 3^rd spot. So I got 5p and Malin 3 in the series, so now I was in the lead by 8…

Next stage was a short criterium on Saturday morning, 30 minutes + 2 laps on a 1.1km course. Lots of attacks came from the Norwegian girls and Svanesund, I had good help from my team mate Jenny, she is only 16 and race with us, she is super strong!! After about 20-24 minutes Madde attacked and as we came up to her I counter attacked and got a gap, Madde came up to me and a lap later Malin caught us. The 3 of us worked and stayed away from the bunch. I started the sprint early and kept the others behind me to win the stage. Malin came in second so once again we got 5 and 3 points, now my lead was 10p! In the stage race we got bonus seconds 6-4-2, meaning that I was 5 seconds before Malin overall.

The Time trail in the evening did not go exactly as planned… I started too slow and could never really get up to speed, not much to say, I had a comfortable feeling and I think it should hurt more then that!! I am disappointed with my race…. I came 2^nd, 34 seconds after Malin and she took the lead overall and she also took 2 points on me in the series, so now I was in the lead by 8 points for the final road race!

It was an exciting road race with lots of attacks, we had 5 laps to do on an 18km long course that included one 1km hill. On lap 2 five girls got away, I had my team mate Jenny in the break so did not do much! On lap 3 I put the hammer down on the hill and we dropped most of the bunch, we were now only 3 chasing, Malin, Madde and me. I let the others do the job since I wanted Jenny to win the race today to get the points in the series! But close to the finish of lap 4 we caught them, even though they were now only 2! We attacked on the last lap but were still 4 coming to the finish. It was a real cat and mouse game and we were just watching each others and no one wanted to start the sprint. As I was about to start that 5^th girl caught us, she surprised me and boxed me in a bit so when Jenny started I had to change side of Malin and could not pass, and just lost the race to come 2^nd. Malin got the 5p and I got 3, for the overall she got 20 and I got 17, this meant that I won the series by 3p.

It has been an exciting season with me and Malin in the lead of the series and I am very happy to win it after 11 races! Someone said that it has never been so close in the series!

This weekend has been good with the places 1-1-2-2 and 2 overall and 1 in the series! Malin got 2-2-1-1, so it was always the 2 of us at the top, well done Malin!!

The season is really coming to the end, 2 more weekends to go! I am doing a 2-day race in Oslo, Norway next weekend! Will be my first time racing in Norway:-)