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After the Laguna Phuket race i stayed at the Laguna resort for the week coming up to the Asia Pacific Championship. The first days my legs hurt, sore muscles and swollen hip from the crashes. I still managed to keep myself active with several rides on the course and when it was race day i did not feel too bad after all.

Start was at 7am, same race venue as the LPT race the week before so everything was very familiar. The pro field was big to be an asian events with almost 50 men and women. The Pro’s had a head start of 1 minute to the age groupers but even if it was a small field there is more fighting for position and my start was not trouble free the first few hundred meters before i sttled with my group. I had a simular position as last week, in the back of a group and could swim comfortably. I decided to make a simular move again and improve my position on the beach run and into the fresh water lagoon. I passed a few and took my own direction towards the other side, not following anyone else. I knew that the bouys was just for directions and no need to go on any particular side of them so the route i took was in my opinion the shortest.

I finished the swim around 12th position and did a ok transition. Out on the bike i did not feel very bad but not good either. Just what i could expect after such long season. I passed a few early on the bike and was passed myself by fast Italians Massimo and Domenico with no chance keeping up with their pace. After a few kilometers the fellow scandinavian(Danish), Aleksander passed me and we kept together later forming a group with Japanese Daiki Masuda. We took turns in the front and after when we hit the first set of steep hills at 43km we caught another group with 4-5 riders. After the hills i went up in the front setting the pace since no one else seemed interested to keep up a good pace and gain on people ahead, instead more thinking about saving the legs to be more competitive within our group when the run starts. I tend to be able to run well even if i push myself hard on the bike and my ambition is always to improve my position(if iam not already in the front group). Many people think i lack skills of race tactics but it’s just my way of racing.

In the group i was second into the transisiton and even after putting on socks i came out in second after the run, with German Jan Raphael a few seconds ahead of me. I felt ok on the run but Jan was going slightly faster and i was slowly loosing sight of him. Despite the lack of running the past months i kept up a good pace and tryed to keep up the mood. I passed 1 or 2 guys early and later i just had Jan in front who i already noticed was keeping a higher pace then me and hard to catch. With no one close neither behind or front of me i settled into a pace without pushing myself too hard and could finish in 9th place. Even if i missed the price money for top8 i can look back to a great year with a high standard througout the long season with peaks at the itu world champs, Philippines and japan.

Looking forward now for some off season rest from races and making plans for the next year. I still feel i can improve in all 3 parts(swim, bike, run)!

3rd time for doing the Laguna Phuket Triathlon but first time racing as pro. Coming into this event my preperations was not the best with a bike crash 3 weeks before that made it hard to do any swim training and just getting back from some hip problems that made my run training almost none existing. Too make things worse i also got a stomach flu 1.5 weeks before so my expectations was not too high of a good result.

I arrived in Thailand tuesday before the race and stayed at a resort in Khaolak, 1.5 hours north of the race location. The days before the race i could finally start swimming and running again and did some last minute training trying to catch up.

The race started at 7am in the morning, beach start with a short run into the water. Swim course was a 1200 out back in the sea followed by a beach run into a fresh water lagoon where the last 600m took place.

There was a small field of professionals with previous winner Massimo Cigana as the favourite. I had a ok start, only mistake might been that i started to swim to early in the shallow water instead of running further out. Once the normal fight to get a position was over i was comfortably placed in the back of the leader group with just one Taipei swimmer a few meters ahead of us.

After completing the 1200m sea swim i was feeling fresh and decided to run hard and get a better position into the lagoon. It worked out well and i was drafting the leader in our chase group after the short beach run. About half way across i was feeling good and decided to swim harder and managed to finish nd in the swim with a small gap to the people behind. I did a ok transition and was in the top5 out on the bike.

I the beginning of the bike i fast passed the Tapei athletes and found myself in first position for a short while until Massimo passed me. He is a much better cyclist then me but i tried to pace out of him and keep him in sight for as long as i could. During the first kilometers it started to rain, at first i did not mind it since it just made the race cooler, but i soon realised the roads got super slippery. First i was feeling i my tyres lost grip a few times before a corner at about 7k into the race when the bike just slipped under me and i went down. The crash was not too bad and except from loosing the chain the bike was ok. I took most of the hit on my hip and since it was so slippert i did not get much scratches, just a bit on my elbow and unfortunately rescratched my old cycling injury from 3 weeks ago. Other from that everything was ok and i was fast up on the bike after first getting to chain on and assuring i was not hurt. No one from behind managed to cath me and i was still in 2nd place but lost sight of Massimo. The crash came just before the steep climbs and the worst decents. Going up was ok except from the normal pain and hard breath but going down i was very causious since i knew how slippery it was.

The rest of the ride was ok but i took it very easy in every corner and think i must have lost time beeing too careful. Coming into transition Masismo was several minutes ahead of me and i had 2min lead to the chase group. After getting my shoes out of the shoes and coming into the last corner before the dismont line i fell again on the bike. Same thing as the first time, bike just went down under me and i was gliding on the asphalt for several meters but fortunately without any major scratches. This time the worst impact was on my other hip and was more bad. But i had the adrenaline and was fast up on the bike and could roll into the transition after getting my chain back on.

I did a ok transition but right away after starting running i could feel that the hip was not really good. I had to limp a bit for the first kilometers and could only jog in a moderate pace without breathing hard, instead focusing on handling the pain from the hip. I knew Massimo was too far ahead but still had hopes to keep my second place, all i had to do was not getting passed. After the first lap of 2 the hip started to soften up and i also noticed people from behind started to catch up on me. I managed to pick up the pace for the 2nd lap and could finish in 2nd place with 3rd placer just a few seconds behind.

I summary i was happy with my 2nd place, i knew my shape was not very good and with 2 crashes on the bike it also felt like a victory just to finish. But still a bit dissapointed with so long time up to the first place finisher Massimo.

My race preparation before this race was not optimal, i had some stressful weeks at work and when Shanghai weather switched to winter over a weekend i catched a cold. It was my first visit to Taiwan and i traveled together with my friend Miguel who also participated in the 70.3. I was positively impressed with Taiwan, feels like you traveling into another country with more polite people and everything more organized compared to mainland China.

To get to the race location i first had to fly 1.5hours to one of Taipei airports. Then take a a 2.5hours high speed train to the end station and after that a 2hour drive to the YOHO bike resort hotel. The organizers was great and helped put with the transport and provided a nice room at YOHO. I arrived on Thursday evening and was already at that time very unsure if i could start or not because of my cold but was all the time thinking i should at least try it out when i traveled so far. On saturday morning when i wake up i was not feeling good and first decided not to start. I was sticking to my decision even if my friend Miguel gave me a hard time. After he left to the race start i made the decision to at least start the swim and see from there. So i rushed all the things together, tattooed the race numbers on my arms(you could see on the 3 that i was in a rush haha) and got down to take the 20min shuttle bus to the race start.

Swim start was at a nice beach in Kenting with clear water. It was a 2 lap course with a short beach run after the first lap. I got off ok in the start and had a steady swim all they way. Unfortunately i did not get any good draft so i had to do the most work myself. I did not do a super swim but was happy with it consider i was not feeling very well.

Once on the bike i went out hard to test my body in the windy conditions. I catched a few people in the first 10k and ended up riding with Mao Yang the local Taiwan pro athlete. He was keeping a Ok pace and we switched position a few times but he seemed to prefer being in the front so i settled behind him within the draft legal distance for most part of the 1.5 laps(it was a 2 lap course). With about 15k to go there was a smaller hill and i decided to make a move and pushed hard over the top and ended up by myself for the last part of the bike.


Now when i finished the bike there was no turning back, i wanted to finish the race. The run was a point to point course starting with a hill right out of transition. I was on my own with no one in sight in front or back of me. I started off in a steady pace which kept or most part of the run. At around 15k my lack of running the past month showed off(only runned 1.5hours the past month). My upper legs started hurting in a way the does not usually do, but i manage to hold up to finish 6th, about 1min up to 5th place and price money.

Overall happy with the race but perhaps it would have been more wise to no start at all. The days after the race i spent in Taipei and on monday Miguel showed me some of the rides. 150 hilly kilometers was not really what my body and legs was wishing for but really nice riding in the mountains and along the coast. Picture below from the ride.

Ironman Taiwan 70.3 video

Only 6 days after Japan 70.3 it was time for ITU Long Distance world series race in Weihai, China. The race was only 1.5 hours fligh from shanghai so easy accessible for me!
It was a double olympic distance which consisted of 2 laps of 1500m swim, 2 laps of 40km bike and 4 laps of 5km run.

Wehai is a nice city in the Shangdong province of China. Its a coastal city with small mountains lining the seaside. The race venue was also nice with the swim start at the beach, not far away from city center.

it was a late start at 10.30 which i like better then the normal 6-7am starts here in asia, reminded me about racing in Sweden

After the opening cermony we lined up at the beach to wait for the start. We where told that it should be a ”on your mark” followed by a horn signal but i think there was some problems with the starting procedure and the start came by suprise. I still had my goggles around my head and had to put them on correctly on the short run down into the water. Once in the water i started off good with not too much fighting. With my weak swimming practice the past weeks i dont have much power to put in to close a gap so when i lost the feets i had after about 400m i was sure this was going too be a loong swim by myself. Luckily shortly after the top agegroup swimmer came up passed me and i got hon his feet. He nearly build up a gap on me but i managed to stay with him for the whole swim. At the last 7-800m i was feeling really sick, perhaps a results of a combination of tiredness, seasickness and swallow too much salt water But once i got out of the water and started running the 500m to transition i was feeling better.

The bike started with a steep uphill directly and continued with sharp corners and hilly sections for the first 20k, it made it hard to find a rythm. Once the hilly section along the coast was over the flat section with headwind began, which made the bike course hard. My feeling during the bike was neither good or bad, just ok. i catched some of the faster swimmers but lost time on the top3 guys.

Second transition went well and i made the decison to try ruinning without socks this time. No races for the next month so i could take the risk with blistards. I regret that decison after about 10k when my feet started hurting, ouch! Anyways it did not affect my race performance since its other things that hurts more to distract you. The course had 2 turn arounds and a hill in the middle. This made it easy to see where your competitior was. I could see that nr 1 and 2 was far ahead but 3rd place was within reach. After making the first 2 laps i could see that i did not gain much on Aaron Farlow which was in 3rd place but he was starting to slow down on the 3rd and 4th lap, unfortunately that was too late and i had to settle with a 4th place. Bad to miss the podium but happy to be able to pull off a ok race despite the back problems i had recently and with the japan race only 6 days ago.

Full results

Had a terrible swim. Lost the 1st group early and had to navigate myself, swim course was unclear and had to stop up and look where to go. Coming into the race i had problem with my shoulder/back and could not swim anything the past 1.5 weeks. Bad feeling all the way and I think i was 10th up from the water.

On the bike i did not have any good feeling but the course with hills and many turns fits me and managed to close in on some of the faster swimmers.

Was dehydrated starting the run because lack of aid stations on the bike and lost one of my water bottles in the first kilometers. Drinking at every station on the run and could keep a good speed and finished 2nd! Cameron Brown was 1st and Hiroyuki Nishiuchi 3rd.

More details results and pictures to be added later.

Results

Back again this year for my second Ironman Philippines 70.3. This race was a race that i already last year decided i wanted to do again for several reasons. You feel really welcome doing this race starting already at the airport where the organizers meet you and make sure you get into the right flight or bus, first in Manila and later at the destination in Legazpi or Naga.

I arrived a few days before the race at Villa Cacares Hotel. The same hotel i stayed in last year and was very welcomed and many of the hote staff was familiar from before. It a good hotel, abit away from the start but have free internet and nice rooms.

Race start was at 6.30 in the morning so no sleep in.

Swim 1800m. 1200m in man made pond, 100m in to the second pond for the last 600m.
The swim took place in the CWC wakeboard parks man made ponds. Freshwater is added everyday so you we did not get the bouancy that you get in a salt water lake.
For the swim i used my RSS swim skin for the last time, after september 1 its banned. At the start i lined up just behind the fastest swimmers to the right side to get the shortest way all the way to the clockwise turnaround. I had a good start and was in the top5 and with a good draft on the leaders. After a few 100m i could not hold the feet on the top 3 guys and had to fall back into my own pace. From that moment i was in lead of the chasing group and was feeling comfortable, tired but under control. Running the 100m over to the next pond went fine and i kept my position in the front of the group. The second pond was a left turn around and up into the transisiton area. This is where i did a mistake, instead of taking the left turn and the shortest way around i headed for a white boat straight ahead, it was mostly my fault and i guess i had some foggy goggles and sun into my eyes, but it was questionable to have a white boat at this place. Anyways i almost swam into the boat and they told me its the wrong way, then i looked to the left and i could see the other swimmers that was behind me a moment ago was now taking the shortest way and was ahead of me. I headed back and could just join the last person in the group and i guess i lost about 30 seconds on my mistake. Coming into the transition i could see at least one of the male pro’s just in front of me and was hoping it could help me on the bike.

Bike. 90k out and back course.
After a ok transition i went out on the bike and noticed i had Courtney Ogden just in front of me on the bike. I decided to try keep up with his pace on the bike but not kill myself if i could not hold it so at times i had abut 100m up to him but did not stress about it.

At around 30k into the race i noticed i got closer and closer and that he might started to be tired and a few kilometers later i decided to pass. After passing him we where together down to the turning point at 45k and headed up from sea level in the slight uphill section. I think it was at this part i lost him and from there on i was by myself. Rest of the bike i tryed to go as hard as i could. Bike is the part i usually loose the most time but the past months my focus been on biking so this time i wanted to see some improvements and i think i did!

The bike part is the one that is most amazing in this race. The roads are shut down for normal traffic and there is a lot of people along the whole course cheering you on.

Run 21.1k, 2laps.
Another ok transition with spending some extra seconds to put on socks i was running out from the transition area. My feeling was not very good at this point with heavy legs but i knew from before that one of my strenght is that i can do a ok run even if iam tired. At this point i was in 4th position with about 8min up to the leaders and 6-7min to 3rd place. The time difference not concern me much starting the run and i just wanted to get into a good pace. The run was hot, maybe not as hot as last year but still hard for running and not much shade so the sun is right on you most parts of the course.
Meeting the other athletes i noticed i was keeping about the same pace as second placed Bozzone but had no kick in the run. Going in for the final stretch before the finish line i heard i was in 3rd place and was suprised since i did not noticed i passed one of the other pro athletes. After the race i found out that i passed him when it was around 2.5km to go.

I was tired crossing the finish but not exhausted. I think i had a steady race but still feel it can be improved and looking forward to next 70.3 race in Japan next month.

Full results here and event website here!

The trip started with a flight to Munich and then a 2.5 hour drive to Immenstadt where the race was held. Immenstadt is located in southern alps of germany very close to the border of Austria and Italy and is in the beginning of the alps. i arrived on thursday afternon toegther with my swedish team mate Jonas and his girlfriend Ingrid which was travelling with us as support of the swedish national team.

The day of arrival was rainy and so was friday when we biked part of the course. it was 12 degrees and a drizzling rain, the weather and the steep hills was not very encouraging.

Luckily the weather reports was saying sunny and warm on sunday race day, and it turned out to be correct!

The swim, big clockwise 4000m course.
It was a early morning race start at 7am in the alp lake ”Alpsee”. No wind/waves and perfect wetsuite temprature of 18c. The course was very simple, 1800m straight out, 400m parallel and then 1800m back. I started on the left side ang got off to a ok start, not much fighting and i settle into the feet of someone ahead of me, about 500m into the swim i noticed a gap increased to the person in front of me but i did not have the swimming strength to close it and get a better position. The rest of the swim was trouble less except from some annoying small fights with people trying to draft the same feet as me. On the way back we had sun in the eyes so it made the navigation harder for us that was not in the front group(later heard they had a big boat that helped them with the navigation). Coming up from the water i needed a pee stop and lost some time there, also had some trouble closing my helmet strap and ended up loosing about 1-2min in the transition, coming up from the swim there was a bigger group but leaving the transition i was last out of the original group and by myself.

Bike, 2 laps. First one 85k, second one 44k. Total 129km.
On the bike i tryed to find a rythm, i did not want to rush anything efter seeing the course the days earlier i knew that if i get tired legs i would loose a lot of time in the hills. Troughout the bike course i was passing people all the time and was feeling ok. Going into the second lap and going up the hills my leg was hurting but this was what i was expecting at this stage of the race. In the last hill before the descent to the town i passed 3-4 other riders and could keep a good pace all the way into transition.

Run, 3 laps x 10k. 60% dirt road and 40% asphalt.
I did a good change into the running shoes even if i took on socks i could do a fast transition. starting running i was suprised how fresh my elgs felt and i was thinking that many of my training runs at home i felt more tired then this starting running. The first 10km i was passing people and i got reports from ingrid along the course that the first 6-7km i done around 30sek faster then my friend Jonas which i know is a good runner. Half way into the second lap i started slowly to get more and more tired, i was not standing still but i could see that i was not increasing my lead from the way behind me and not gaining too much on the ones in front. At this moment also the first competitior passed me. It was Gomes from Portugal that have been running around the same pace as me the first half of the race and now was keeping up the pace better then me. i did not even try to follow him, instead staying with my pace. Rest of the run was not very eventfull except that i was passed by an Brazilian. At the last turnaround with 2km to go i could see a Dutch athlete was just a few meters behind me and i had to try keeping a good speed all the way to the finish to not get passed. I could keep him behind and i finished in 15th place and the Swedish team with me, Jonas and Karl-Johan got the bronze medal in the team competition. My first world championship medal!!

Full results here: http://www.triathlon.org/results/results/2010_immenstadt_itu_long_distance_triathlon_world_championships/4393/

The 5th race in the Trek Shanghai cup took place in Fengxian a suburb 40km from Shanghai city center. It was a hot and humid day with tempratures around 30 degrees. It was a late start at 11.40 so i decided to ride there as a warmup together with a few friends. The race course was 16 laps on a 5.1km loop that totaled around 78km, see map below.

Since i won the yellow jersey the last race i had some pressure on to defend it but i knew it would though since there was many people just a few points away in the total standings. My team(Chains sprockets) had arranged yellow handelbar tape and yellow bibs in addition to the jersey and sunglasses i already had so at least people could notice where i was

Before the race i did not have any strategy planned how to defend my jersey since it think its very difficult since alot can change in a race and it depends on what other peoples move, all i knew was that i needed to do something unexpected now when more people is watching me and would not let me go away in a breakaway that easy. When the race gun went off i kept myself in front and when i was taking the first corner it came to my mind a strategy that a team made in a tour of Sailimu lake, attack at the start. I decided to give it a go and started to sprint out of the first corner and at the same time test to see if my legs where fresh or not. I was feeling pretty good and the field got dragged out with the hard pace at start and 2 corners later a group of around 10 people started to form, at that point i tryed to encourage the people to contribute and form a group but it seems like no one was interested, problaby because it was soo early into the race. When i realised this i slow down a bit and made another attack and started to create a gap by myself. I was happy to get away but also felt that i would need someone more to join to give it a greater chance of success. Anyways i decided to give it a go and started working hard to increase my lead. i worked well and the distance grew and i could easily win the sprint laps on the 2nd and 3rd lap.

At about 35k(7th lap) into the race i noticed another group of around 12 people where closing in on me. At that point i decided to slow down a bit, still keep a hard pace without killing myself but save some energy for the future. When they got my plan was to try keep a distance to them and wait for other people to join me for a new breakaway.

The strategy suceeded and i was eventaully joined by 4 other riders, unfortunately all of them was close to me in the total standings so i knew i needed to defeat them to keep the yellow.

It was a bit hard to get a team work going and it ended up to be myself and Wilhelmus in the Specialized team to do most of the work to keep the breakaway alive.

The laps went by and i was in general feeling very good despite the effort in the breakaway alone earlier. It was still hot but i had good team support with water aid every lap.

When it was 1.5 lap to go i did a serious attack knowing this was my only chance for a win with the weak sprint i have. I got a gap but was reeled in by the other just a couple of kilometers later. I did another attemt to get away a few kilometers from the finish but failed. Coming into the final sprint my legs was feeling ok but could only manage to take 5th and the last place in the group.

I lost the yellow jersey at the end but still happy with the race knowing i did not give it up without fight.
Race report at cyclingnewsasia: http://www.cyclingnewsasia.com/en/road/35-general/731-shanghai-shen-jiachen-takes-win-and-slips-into-yellow
Full results: http://race.bikehome.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91:july-10-trek-fengxian-results&catid=35:2010-03-19-11-18-01&Itemid=53

Ceepo rider Fredrik Croneborg will represent Sweden in the ITU Long Distance world championships held in Immenstadt, Germany. Fredrik will be a part of the swedish national team together with Jonas Djurback and Karl-johan Danielsson. The event date is August 1st. Official announcement at the Swedish Triathlon federation: http://iof3.idrottonline.se/templates/NewsPage.aspx?id=19393

This weekends bike race turned out good at the end. I was not feeling good the first half of the race and maybe i had some heavy legs from Xinjiang. Even if i did not feel very good i stilled tryed to get in a breakaway as ususal . I noticed today many people watching me more and it was harder to get away, the time i got away i had Specialized rider William Neijissen that had the yellow jersey on my wheel and i think he watched me a bit, but then Daniel Carruthers from Championsystem did a smaller attack and i followed him on the right side of the road, then he decided to moved across all the way to the left side and William and most of the others decided to take his wheel so i got away a bit and took my chance and went hard, at that time a CCN team rider and strong sprinter type Specialized rider joined me and we worked hard to get a gap.

After half a lap a Trek TCR rider joined the group. We got a good teamwork going with mostly me and the Trek rider in front. After another lap or 2 the Spezialized rider got dropped and we where 3 people working together. After half way i was starting to feel better and the other two got a bit more tired and the CCN rider stopped taking his turns in the front or just for shorter bits, the Trek rider was still riding well but at the last laps i did most the work since my energy got a bit better.

At 1 lap to go i tryed a attack but without success, with 2k to go i tryed to increase the speed again but could not get away, i got a bad position and was 3rd into the last corner for the sprint and could just finish in 3rd place, but i know my sprint is really bad so did not expect much more, my chance was to get away earlier.

By this result i managed to take the Yellow jersey and iam in now in the lead in the overall standings!

Results: Trek Zhujiaojiao results

Race report: Cyclingnewsasia