After 2 days of XC skiing up in Orsa Grönklitt, we finished the first ski training camp with a race on Sunday morning. Pursuit start over 11 km's around Stormon, based on my perception of how we all had performed during the previous days. There were lots of speculations the night before and suddenly everyone got very serious about the ski prepartions with new glider and ultimate grip wax. Even Micke was out in the dark working on his skis. Sven hardly left his skis at all during the last 18 hours before start and I can recall seeing him at  several occasions, polishing his Solomon skis frenetically.

Approx 2 minutes between the starters were perhaps a little bit to much for the mid field of starters, who never really got into close fighting chest to chest.

Monkan didn't start in pool position as planned (feeling weak in the morning), but made a heroic attempt to catch the complete field of skiers, with a late start behind everyone, after a peptalk from her mental coach. Otherwise everything worked according to plan = Micke won. The rest of us, who are equiped with normal humbleness, made our best and fought bravely. I think that we all felt the stress of competitiveness a bit, especially the ones that started early on and knew that they were chased. He he he ... Good job Bittan, Monkan, Sven, David, Kristian, Jörgen & Micke.

As a coach for this dream team, I was very pleased with the overall performance. Vasaloppet is now approx 3 months away and I'm confident that it will be a walk in the park for everyone. Only very bad weather during the first Sunday in March, can now cause some disturbances for our success. YESSSSS!!!!