Speed in the City, Race report – Round 4 Stockholm Cup and Swedish Champs

Report by Mr Jones

The sound of Stockholm was in constant earshot as some of Sweden’s best local and World cup riders rode up to lay claim to the Swedish Championship and the Stockholm downhill cup title on Saturday 13th October. All that stood before them was a Napolean track (short and feisty), a baying crowd and roots and rocks looking for a fight.

Race days are often complicated, with start gates, timings and running orders all having to run seamlessly. So to make it really, really complicated round four of the Stockholm DH cup became a two for one race running symbiotically with the Swedish Champs.

I could go into how it worked, who needed a license, qualification and all, but the truth is it doesn’t really matter that much. What mattered was being the first down the hill and several riders must have cashed up their common sense in the qualis as they literally tore down parts of the track!

Many of Swedens best riders, including the Wallner and the Kangas brothers, of World Cup circuit fame, brought a different level of race intensity and preparation to the qualifying runs than may have been seen in previous Stockholm DH Cup races, but it brought a nice race buzz to the end of the season climax.

Sweden is not often considered a warm and dry location but the lack of rain over the summer had hampered much of the scheduled course building with work on new features only being finalised after some recent rains. As if in definace of being remoulded, and despite some glorious Autuminal sunshine, the course remained wet and slippery for most of the race day practice which put many planned lines and nerves on the edge.

Two timed runs made up the racing with the fastest time counting towards the final result. The riding in the first run was fast, but many bikes and riders were going sideways with the roots and rocks playing their part and there was a sense that many riders may have been holding off the afterburners in the hope that the elements took some of the shine out of the surface for the second run.

It was a good strategy as the second run was greeted with a grippier surface and the extra boost given by a swelling crowd which seemed to have found it’s voice – as well as the odd few that seemed to have got lost on their Sunday walk and clearly wondered what form of nihilistic bikers they had stumbled on.

Either way the speeds and intesity picked up over the second run with some of the leading riders pushing even harder to find those precious miliseconds on a small hill. Although the rocks and roots did their best to unhinge a few riders it was good to see most got down fast and in one piece.

The results were broken up into the various races and catergories for the day, particular note should go to the new Swedish champs for elite men and women, Robin Wallner and Jenny Rissveds, respectivley, and the overall winner of the Stockholm DH cup, Oliwer Kangas.

Podiums

Stockholm may not be the obvious choice for a Swedish Championship as the hills will never win prizes for length and stamina. But the work already put together in previous rounds of the Stockholm DH cup showed that Stockholm had the appetite and a great bike community to fully compensate for any lack of length! In all it worked, as on the hill many kids and families saw the best Swedish based talent and DH racing for the first time and by using a well known city center ski hill it all ran smoothly.

The sun has been getting lower and lower in the north and round 4 and the Swedish Champs also marks the end of the DH season for many. Making race days possible is no easy task and thanks and praise need to be poured over riders, volunteers and sponsors (Specialized Concept Store, Cycle Corner, Sweet Protection, Five Ten, Oakley, Redbull, Shimano, POC) alike who have made it all possible.

But the most thanks from all of us who ride our bikes needs to go to Mike Evans and Jonny Johansson for building a race series, and some courses, from scratch and giving us the chance to frighten ourselves senseless! Nice one muckers!

Results:

Stockholm Underground Downhill Round 4:

1. Zakarias Blom Johansen – 46.94
2. Ragnar Sylwan – 47.44
3. Herman Ölund – 47.58
4. Anton Lundgren – 50.59
5. Jostein Nystad – 51.27
6. Rickard Frick Larsson – 52.29
7. Martin Stålnäbb – 52.98
8. Stefan Olsson – 53.03
9. Max Nordström – 53.98
10. John Hedman – 54.54
11. Mattias Sörberg – 54.65
12. Teuvo Jussi – 56.11
13. Emil Lindberg – 56.3
14. Axel Jacobsson – 57.32
15. Jakob Dahl – 59.08
16. Jim Base – 59.39
17. Martin Öhlin – 1,01,05
18. Daniel Dimtsas – 1,02,37
19. Pierre Cederholm – 1,02,98
20. Adam Larson – 1,03,30
21. Fredrik Pettersson – 1,04,95
22. Robin Svedhem – 1,06,82
23. Jimmy Viktorsson – 1,09,69
24. Alexi Roberto – 1,10,46
25. Theo Wallmon – 1,13,48
26. Anders Ekström – 1,26,41

Swedish Champs Results: