Björn won Haglöfs Åre Extreme Challenge

After 5 hours and 6 minutes of hard work, Björn crossed the finishline in Åre as the winner of 2013 years edition of Haglöfs Åre Extreme Challenge.

This was the biggest Haglöfs Åre Extreme Challenge this far, with almost 600 participants in total, 187 starting the male solo category. Team Haglöfs Silva was represented by Aaron Princ and Björn Rydvall, both racing Male Solo.

The race is divided into three different sections;
22 km downstream kayaking, 15 km mountain running (1000 m up and down) and 33 km mountainbiking with all Solo racers starting together.

Björn had a really good day and performed well in all disciplines. After a strong kayaking he took the lead of the race before the top of the Åre mountain. Running downhill he missed the marked route for a while, lost about 2 minutes, and the lead to Daniel Hansson of FJS, who were flying downhill. At the transition for the last section, mountainbike, Björn was almost 3 minutes behind Daniel, with Scott Cole (last years winner) less than a minute behind.

  

Björn pushed hard directly from the start and gradually decreased the distance to Daniel, have caught half of it after 30 minutes of hard biking and pushing through wet marchlands. Unfortunately, Scott was moving even faster… Halfway into the section Björn had passed Daniel (who was unlucky and broke his chain) but was also overtaken by Scott, as always going superfast in the downhill biking. Scott and Björn biked together for a short while, but at the next uphill, Björn pushed all that he had and manage to get away from Scott. As soon as Björn realised that Scott could not stay on his wheel, Björn pushed for all he could to get a good gap before the next downhill and then he kept on pushing all the way to Åre. As he crossed the finishline, Björn was totally exhausted. But even more he was happy and very surprised!

   

2nd place (3 min behind) to Emil Dahlqvist, FJS, 3rd to Scott Cole, Dynafit, 4th to Daniel Hansson, FJS and 5th to strong skier Anders Eriksson.

Aaron had a tough day and finised 10th, not that satisfied with his performance.

more pictures and results: www.areextremechallenge.se
All photos: Jakob Edholm