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| My cycling career | | | | The beginning was fun... | |
 | It all began when I was 11-years-old. I realized I was not aimed to be neither a soccer player nor a hockey player. My Dad helped me to get in contact with the local Cycling Club. I really enjoyed pushing myself hard and letting go of all my energy. I had some successful years as a youngster, a lot thanks to my sprinting capabilities. As a junior rider I developed my time-trial skills and loved to clock myself on different distances during training. It paid of well and gave me the gold medal in the Scandinavian Championships for juniors in individual time-trial. |
The focus was not clear...
The first years as U23-rider were difficult for me since I also studied at the university during that time. I did not have the time to train and race on the highest level and struggled to stay in the bunch. To be honest my focus was on many things those years and cycling was only one of them. I was riding my bike since I thought it was fun, but was not willing to sacrifice a normal living style. I wanted to win but didn’t realize what I needed to do to get there.
My life started to change...
The last two years at the university my life started to change. I managed to find more time for training, mainly thanks to better performance in school. I found the love of my life, who nowadays also is my wife, Katarina. I got interested in the importance of eating healthy and resting properly. I started to like a life style that was much more serious than before. I found a coach who could help me with planning my training, a man who helped me with massage and stretching and a man who learned me a lot of eating right.The results got increasingly better and at an age of 23 I won four races in Sweden. By this time I finalized my studies at the University and was ready for the next step in my cycling career. In 2002 at an age of 24 I got a place on the Team Mälarenergi squad, a Swedish TT3 team. That year I developed a lot, thanks to a supporting environment and tough racing all over Europe. I tried my best to get the shape of a real top rider and all I did was connected with becoming a better rider. Cycling was no longer a hobby, it was now my life. That year I also discovered one of my specialities, through winning the most aggressive rider competition in Tour of Sweden. I just loved to attack and ride alone up the rode. The meaning of my cycling was now completely different to all earlier years so I consider 2004 to be my first year as a real cyclist. It was like beginning all over again, but in a completely different way from the first time. My main goal was to become a good professional.
Moved to Luxembourg and got success...
After one more year on the same team I realized I needed to get into a team that was racing the whole season in west- and central Europe. I managed to get a place on CCI Differgdange, a good amateur team in Luxembourg. For this team in 2004 I got my international breakthrough. I had a really good season with six victories and more than 25 podium places. I also got the bronze medal in the Swedish championship individual time-trial together with the professionals. I tried to find a professional team for the 2005 season but had to satisfy with the Konica Minolta Continetal team, which did not look bad at all. |
2005 was the year when everything got messed up...
|  | At the start of 2005 I had really high ambitions and thought this was the year that should give me a real pro contract. Unfortunately this year turned out to be a night-mare. First I got sick for over a month in the beginning of the year. I got a virus infection in South Africa which multiple times caused me muscle pain, fever and stomach problems. When I finally was healthy again our team was lack of races. So when I was supposed to be in good shape I was far beyond schedule. I started to pressure myself harder and harder, both physically and mentally. In July my body told me to stop, my heart starting to do irregular multiple | | heart beats. I was through lots of testing both in Luxembourg and France. They did not find any serious heart disease and told me that my problems would pass if I took it easy. Two months later the problems were gone and I could start training properly again. But then the season was almost finished and my planned time as stagiare rider for team Barloworld had to be cancelled. I was though offered a new chance with Konica Minolta for 2006 but due to structural changes the team was no longer connected with the Barloworld pro team. The team had to cut in their budget and do a smaller European program. |
New spirit and huge motivation to be back in 2006
I was so happy that I could ride my bike in a hard way again, the only thing I wanted to do was getting back to winning bike races! I decided to do all I could to get back to great shape and not giving up my dreams of getting into one of the biggest teams in cycling. I know how to live like a cyclist. I love the life I have with all what it includes. I decided to join the new started team; Continental team Differdange. This team is a development of the team I was riding for in 2004, but with a bigger organisation, some new good riders and a better race program. In 2006 I decided to focus on having fun and winning bike races. I would take all the chances that I got to reach the first spot. When I was not the main guy in the team for the day I would sacrifice myself totally to make the team effort the best possible. One thing was though for sure, I would give it all to make another step in my career!
And I was going well again
2006 is my best season ever. All the health problems from last year are completely gone and I have been feeling good the whole year. It has been really fun to ride the bike and the results have been better than ever before. I think I learned a lesson last year, to not stress myself and instead focusing on having fun. It feels like have been better on pushing myself harder in some moments but also to take it more easy in other. Now I know I’m ready to win races on the big scene and I will do all I can to make it there.
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