Season 2015 has been pretty dramatic for Adventure Racing Team Haglöfs Silva, with both ups and downs.
The first big race of the season was the Raid Gallaecia in Spain, part of Adventure Racing Word Series, in mid may. As Björn got diagnosed with Diabetes type 1 less than two weeks before the race he was not able to go. He was replaced by Jari Palonen, who together with Josefina, Mattias and Robert took a nice and strong victory ahead of Team Seagate (NZ).
5 weeks after the victory in Spain, the team was gathered in Åre for Haglöfs Åre Extreme Challenge. Josefina finished 3rd amongst the girls, Robert was the fastest guy, with Mattias 2nd. Björn was 6th, after a tough day where he got some new experiences regarding blood sugar values…
August is normally the big mountain marathon month in Sweden. Björn and Josefina ran the Björkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon and won the mixed category. The next weekend, they both ran the Kiruna Extreme, but in different teams. Björn won together with Olof Häggström and Josefina finished 3rd in the mixed category with Jonas Westling.
In September, many Swedish teams had gathered in Branäs for the Le Grand Tour, 24 hours of nonstop racing in the southern mountain region. Team Haglöfs Silva (Aaron, Josefina, Mattias and Robert) won the race, three hours ahead of Thule Adventure Team.
Adventure Racing World Championship in Pantanal, Brazil, was the main goal for team Haglöfs Silva, as for probably almost all other adventure racing teams out there. Having been forced to withdraw both Costa Rica (2013) and Ecuador (2014) due to wrist/elbow fractures for Josefina, we really wanted to finish the Worlds in Brazil, and we wanted to finish strong! The race turned out to be one of the warmest and toughest races ever and our team finished 2nd!
Photo: Erik Putsep
Thanks to everyone who have supported and cheered us during this 2015 (and earlier) season(s). Without you, it would not have been this good!
We are now looking forward to the Adventure Racing season 2016. Race schedule is still to be decided, as there are many interesting and challenging races out there and unfortunately we cannot race them all.
We wish you all a Happy New Year!