After my 10th national championship last fall I had a knee surgery scheduled. The surgery went well, as all hours of rehab training that followed after surgery. With a healthy knee was the motivation back on top!
When spring arrived, the motivation is not as strong anymore. There were fewer Swedish Championship races than usual on the calendar. At the same time they scheduled two in the early spring and two late fall. Would i now put in the hundreds of hours training by myself in the forest, rain or shine to have the chance to take an 11th gold? was a question I asked myself some time before the first two races. I’ve never seen myself as a “talent” in the sense that I have found it easy to learn new things in the sport, the only talent I have is that I have been training very hard to reach the goals I set for myself.
The focus this year was not even close to 100%. Quite early, I felt that my last seroius season was last season. Although I managed to get away with a second place overall , it’s only because I have a lot of experience , and physics is still on top thanks to a newborn interest in the form of enduro.
This was my 19th racing season in the sport. I will remain within the federation as a trainer, etc. but my time as an elite cyclist is now completed. I will certainly show up for a few races in the future, but then it will be on a completely different level. The love for the sport is still there and I still think it’s fun to ride and compete. But the motivation to continue to put down the work required to keep the level I had before is not there.
15 of my racing seasons I’ve spent the national Elite class, with 10 gold and 3 other medals as a result. Before I started driving Elite, I won the A-Cup attending class for 2 consecutive years. The year before so I won the junior championship.
There were 17 seasons with international competitions with the World Cup, European Championships and European Cups. The best results where an European Championships Gold medal, and several medals in both the World Championships and European Cups.
I want to thank all sponsors, most have been with me for many years. Your support has helped me to a long and successful career, and for that I am eternally grateful!