Swedish XCM Championships 2021 - Bronze medal

Result: 3rd place

Equipment: BMC Fourstroke with Maxxis Aspen 2.2" tires

Type of race: XCM, 80 kilometers

The Swedish Marathon Championships were hosted by a yearly race called Alliansloppet on the west coast. I had never raced it before or even cycled in the area and so I knew nothing about the terrain or what kind of trails I could expect. I really wanted to test ride the course in advance in order to know what to expect but had no opportunity to do so.

I turned out to be a really technical race. Or rather, the first third of the track (we did two laps), was really technical, and then the last two thirds were really easy on gravel and asphalt roads. However that first third was rooty and rocky and wet and muddy. Not my favorite. Again, I had no idea about this... until the race actually started. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

The race started and we started up a long asphalt climb which stretched the field out. I like this kind of a start. But then, as soon as we got into the forest, I got my nasty surprise: Really tricky terrain with roots and rocks. And it was all wet and muddy. When I saw this my hopes of a good finish fell.

I decided not to lose all hope and just tried to hold it together without crashing and still not losing too much time. There were quite a few riders who did overtake me in this first third of the track.

But then we got to the second part of the race and all of a sudden there were quick jogging trails, gravel roads, and asphalt. I got a good couple of riders to hang with and all of a sudden things were looking more positive again.

As the second lap started we got back into that messy stuff and I tried to play it safe again. It actually went better than the first time around. The last part of the lap, until the finish, I rode mostly by myself. It felt good and I was able to hold the watts up.

I finished the race and was told that I had come in third place. I didn't really believe this as the terrain didn't really at all suite me. But I waited around for the official results which came about an hour later and yes, I had actually gotten bronze in the M50 category. My first ever medal in a championships. It seems however that I had been a bit lucky because to of my main competitors, who were ahead of me, had crashed out of the race.

(This article was written a loooong time after the race. It's actually December and I'm in Thailand writing it :) )