Last part of season

Am back in Spain, finally i should say, almost two months since i saw my spanish home latest!
Europeans road race was not the greatest race of the year, finally a 12th place, after a break of 7 girls just managed to stay away on the line. We were only two girls from Sweden and has not much power to use in situations like that, you just have to be cool and hope the luck is there, but didnt work this day. So I have now done my last European championhip, where I last two years got myself home with a silver medal each year, which is super good, only a gold would have tasted a little better..
But new races and new opportunities!
I had a couple of days rest to charge my batteries again, and have now done a couple of good trainings, preparing for the last part of the season.
My schedule is ready, and I got the good news I will be doing the World Cup in Sweden, coming up next week! Always great to do such a big race on home soil. Looking forward to it and i have some bad luck from last couple of years to make up this time!

A bitter-sweet Silvermedal

A silvermedal at the Time trial in the European championship!
But at first it felt more like losing the gold then winning a silvermedal.
I had high ambitions going in to this race, and somewhere in my head i had the dream of a goldmedal. Ended up on second place, earning a silvermedal, 11 seconds after Russian Alexandra Burchenkova, and Lithuanian Katazina Sosna on third place, 52seconds back.
Not super much time up to the first place, but today she was the strongest.. And being able to defend my silvermedal from last year is something I have to be happy about. After all it's a medal in a championship and in a few days I might feel more satisfied with it.
Next up is the road race on saturday, til then a lot of water and rest!

Back from Giro Donne

Then the Giro Donne is over for me and im back home in sweden for a quick visit before i leave again tomorrow night, to travel further to Turkey.

The Giro was a nice experience, but i stepped out after stage 8, of 10, to get enough recovery for my Europeans Time trial coming up already on thursday. So what I missed was the epic day up to Stelvio and the final stage at Monza.
The team had some awsome days, taking 5 stage wins, and a second place in GC, well done! Nice teamwork and for myslef a pretty good Time trial.
Been some nice stages with a great scenary, in the end loads of climbing, with one stage of 89km including over 2300 highmeters of climbing up to the finish in Livingo. Thats also where my Giro ended, and now my focus is on Europeans next week in Ankara!

Swedish champion TT!

Now the week of the Swedish national championships is over.
I got back to Sweden from The states late last monday, and t was all abot to recover quick and be ready again for TT wednesday.
Ofcourse nothing should go too smooth, so to make it a little more stressed my TT bike hadn'r arrived as it should from Belgium. So on the tuesday it looked like i wouldnt have a bike and i wasnt sure of a start the next day. But after some great tracking my dad could get the hands on it and drive up with it on wednesday morning!
So with the bike problem and jetlag and the fact my shape is still not at top after my sickness, I didn't expect to that well i actually did.
I started last as defending champion, and crossing the line after the 30km they announced new best time. Couldn't believe my eyes, didn't have any times during the course either so it was a nice surprise!
I ended up winning the Time trial with a good 48 seconds up on Emma Johansson, and Sara Mustonen taking third.
So that i managed to defend the title feels great and i will have another year in my blue and yellow skinsuite!


The road race was held on a lap of 34km done 4 times, including 4 times up Gesundaberget, a hard hill.
It was hard from the start with Emma pushing the pace first time ine the hill, and a bit after my clubmate Karin went in a break with Marie Lindberg. So far according to plan, and i knew Emma would go hard next lap again in the hill to make it up to them. Turning in to the climb i missed the attack on my right side and had a gap of 10m on Emma, and thats impossible to close to such a strong rider. I saw my chances go as she went. My mistake, and i was in the group behind with 5 other girls and we worked good together but didnt make up any time. Emma won the race after a strong effoert coming in solo!
I won the groupsprint for 6th place, not really happy about the result, but the feeling was okej, and I atleast feel im improving for every race now and slowly geting back again.

Next big goal coming is Europeans in 2 weeks, but got a late call-in a few days ago, so now im on a train to the airport flying to Italy for doing the Giro Donne!
Am happy to get some racing in and it will be good, hard prepearation for Europeans, and a needed stage race for my legs as i missed L'aude earlier..
Will be back with reports from my first Giro!

Nature Valley GP stage 4, 5 and 6

Again long time since a note here..
So first short back to Nature Valley. Stage 4, a critt in Minneapolis went again well for the team, we got a win with Chloe! And for me i also had a better feeling, much nicer course and i could ride more aggresive.
Stage 5, first road race over a 122km. A hard day with steep rollers all day long, and we had Linda going of the front with another girl, and she took over the yellow after that stage.
Last day a circuit race over 13 laps of a short course, basically just up and down this steep hill..
We had the yellow to defend and the race went straight from the gun, with other team try to make it really hard. And it was. It splitted up totally already after a lap, and a smaller group went of the front a few laps in with Evelyn in. Me, Kim and Linda was in the small group that was left of the bunch, trying to make the gap smaller. It ended up with Evelyn winning the stage solo, really strong! But we lost the yellow..
For me it was a pretty good ride and i could do some help on that hard course, and my legs was very tired and more then ready to go straight to the airport and fly to Europe again, with the nationals TT coming up in 3 days..

Nature Valley stage 1, 2 and 3

Nature Valley started out with a early morning Time trial on the wednesday, and no TT equipment was aloud. Was a nice course over 10km with the last kilometer uphill to the finish.
I got a good ride in and ended on a 9th place, same time as the 8th.. Happy with that since i had many good names behind me. That ment i got to ride in the young riders jersey for the next stage.
A double day on the program and Stage 2 in the evening, a criterium over 1h in downtown Saint Paul. Not the greatest course with some bad surface and corners, so was a whole lot of crashes. But it stayed all together and we got a very cool stage win with Chloe taking the sprint!
Stage 3, a road race over 104 km, turned out to be something I never experienced before. During the day we heard they warned for thunderstorms and tornados later in the evening, but still looked good driving to the race, only very windy.
Minutes before the start big black clouds just appears, so standing on the start line just minutes away from rolling off, they cancell the race, cause of the severe thunderstorm coming towards us.
First race i have had cancelled, and there was nothing else then jump in the car and go back to the hotell...


So, now we are more then ready for stage 4, been out riding a couple of hours this morning, and tonite its time for a criterium in Minneapolis over 1h.

Sweden-Girona-Philadelphia-Canada-Minneapolis

Time goes by fast, and got some new places visited lately.
The chickenpox kept me out of Tour de L’aude, and stuck in bed for 2 whole weeks. Didn’t think it would affect me that hard, but now I atleast got that one out of me and that wont bother me ever again.
Back on the bike its been about getting my body going again, slowly try to build up a base…
It also changed my race program and instead of doing the races in Europe at this time, I went over to north America, to do Philadelphia Liberty classic, further on to Canada for two new races in Gatineau, and finally back again in the States I will this week compete in the Nature Valley Grand Prix, a 5 day race with 6 stages.
Its been tough to get back to racing, Philly was a cool experience but a very hot day made it really hard out there. We did a good team effort and Ina won.
Further to Canada, my first time in the country, we did a Time trial last saturday, where I ended 9th which im quite happy with, looking to my preparation. Sunday time for a Road race of 100km. A yet again very hot day and many attacks made also that day hard. Was up there in some good breaks and found a good race feeling again. Unfortunately in the end, we had some bad luck, leading out for the sprint through last round about 300m to go it all looked good with me first in and Chloe on my wheel, when she gets taken out from a girl ditching in from the side. Things that can happen, and I rolled in as 7th. Was a fun and aggressive race, but still lacking that power I felt before I got sick, but I can see a progress and now we have 5 exciting days ahead of us, before I on Sunday eve heading back to Sweden for the coming nationals.

The chicken pox result in no Tour de L'Aude

I keep getting challenged, this time i caught the chicken pox a week ago. Been a rough week, and didnt recover yet, so wont be able to start in Tour de L'aude.
Its really a big disspointment for me, since that race was really good for me last year, and i've been looking forward to this year's a lot.
Not just missed out on a week of training, now also 10days of good racing, its a big set back, but now i just have to turn my disspointment, get healthy and get myself back there.
Tomorrow i fly back to Sweden to get some family around me, and look forward to get up on the bike again.
And all succes to the rest of the team for L'Aude, my fingers will be crossed!