Ready for Haglöfs Åre Extreme Challenge

Five weeks has passed since the very thrilling ending of the Raid Gallaecia in Spain, where our team finished 1^st. The victory was for sure the perfect start of season 2015, but it did not come for free! 81 hours or racing full speed with less than 4 hours of sleep in total is a great way to break down your body… It took quite a while after the race in Spain until the team were back into training, but during the last weeks, our bodies have started to respond to training again…

We are now gathered in Åre to get ready for the European Championship; Haglöfs Åre Extreme Challenge (HÅEC) on Saturday. This race was the first multisport race to be organised among the Nordic countries and has been held yearly since 1997! HÅEC is very different from races such as the Adventure Racing World Series race Raid Gallaecia in Spain. Instead of a racing in teams of four, for 3-7 days nonstop, we will now race one by one and for “only” 5-6 hours.

Normally, HÅEC starts with a 25 km river kayaking including two longer rapids, but due to the very late spring this year (high water levels), the kayak section will be held on the lake instead. After 18 km kayaking on the lake, the racers will climb the Åreskutan mountain (1000 m ascending) and run down on the other side, to Huså village. This running will be more challenging than normally, as there is still lots of (rotten) snow left on the north side of the hill. In Huså is the 2^nd and last transition, over to mountainbiking. 30 km of technical and hilly mountainbiking, including some nice sections of swamp running, takes the racers back to Åre.

Last year’s edition of Haglöfs Åre Extreme Challenge have been very successful for the team with Björn winning men’s Solo in 2013 and Robert, Björn and Mattias taking the full podium in 2014. This year we will have Robert, Björn, Mattias and also Josefina on the starting line. Unfortunately, Aaron had to stay back home in Gothenburg, as he is recovering from a recent back surgery.

The competition this year will be very tough with many of the strongest Swedish guys and girls. There are also some international multisport stars challenging, including the second place finisher at the World Championship Coast2Coast, Sam Clark (NZ).

We will do our best to put some bright coloured Haglöfs-clothing on the podiums, so please keep your fingers crossed for us on Saturday!