After Easter and 3 days at home in Sweden I started the long trip to Czech republic to do the UCI 2.2 stage race Gracia – Orlova for the 5^th time consecutive. I met up with the team and we took the ferry from Sweden to Poland and after a 12 hour drive through Poland we learnt the lesson never to take that road again…. We got to the hotel 36 hours after I left home, that trip is a bit too long.

Prologue

For the first time the race started with a prologue on Wednesday evening, it was a 2.2 km course with some technical corners near the turn around point. I felt eager to start racing after all that travelling so went flat out from the start. I had some problems in the corners since a few rain drops had made it slippery, better to be safe then sorry! I finished 4^th and my team mate Isabelle was 3^rd and Jessica 5^th, so a nice evening for the team when we also took the lead in the team competition. There were 4 jerseys to be handed out, I got the dotted one which is normally the climbers jersey but in this race is was the activity jersey.

1^st stage

For the first time on a UCI race I started in one of the jerseys, nice feelingJ The race was 101km and started the same as all other years, I felt good and tried to go on the first sprints and hills, managed a 4^th on the second hill sprint but nothing more. When we thought the whole day was going to be the same as previous years we suddenly turned another direction and we got to what is usually the longest climb of this race, a 7km hill up to a ski resort. That was where they had put the finish this year. A bit before the hill I started to feel that it felt so heavy and on the hill I hardly moved forward, only to notice after the line that I had a slow puncture….

2^nd stage

123km and 4 hills was on todays program. The first was after 20km and was the same as the finish yesterday. I felt good but the climbing is not really there right now. Got a bit behind the bunch on the 7km climb but descending and flats feels really good and I almost caught the bunch again 35km later on the 3^rd climb. But when I had 50 meters left there was an attack and I missed out, so it was a long day in the saddle, and the rain….

Time trail

Today my bad luck continued… it was the day I was looking forward to and it felt even better when we saw the course, a straight flat road, with 3 turn around points, could not be better for me! But it felt like it ended before it started, I got a puncture after 1 or 2 kilometres and I did not have service, I stopped and after a few minutes another team was kind to stop and give me a wheel so that I could at least carry on so that I would be able to do the last stage. Strangely enough I was not last and only dropped 4 places in the GC. Very disappointed tho! Was a happy day for the team since Malin was 3^rd! Well done Malin!!!

Checked later in the evening on my Garmin that it took 5 minutes from I discovered the puncture until I was away again with a new wheel...

4th stage

Last day started in rain and cold weather. 6 laps on a technical 16,5km course that I really liked. I felt good today after yesterdays "restday". I was at the front the whole race working hard for the team, went on lots of attacks and got away once together with a russian girl. We stayed away for 5 kilometers before the bunch caught us again. Unfortunately it was 2 girls that got away with 2 laps to go and we never caught them, so we sprinted for 3rd. It got very messy in the uphill sprint and we did not manage to stick to our plan so Isabelle finished 7th and I came in on 10th place. Still happy with the way I raced today, especially after this week....

I decided to fly home instead of the long journey in the car. Drove with the team to Berlin and flew from there the next morning.

Was home 24 hours after we left the race, quick hey:-)?

Will add some pictures shortly.

finishing the prologue

Prize giving and handing out jerseys after the prologue

Team picture: Linn, Isabelle, Madde, Jessica, Malin and me

Waiting for the start of stage 1

2 minutes to go...

stage 1

50 meters to the finish of stage 1, with a slow puncture.....

climbing in the rain on stage 2

 Bunch is together on stage 4 on narrow roads