Scandinavian IGSA National 2008

Scandinavian IGSA National 2008

 

Last Thursday the Infamous Bomb Squad loaded my Volvo to the brick and pointed her south for the 4 ½ hour drive to Falköping and the Ålleberg hill witch has graced the Swedish Nationals in the past years, but this time it was to host the Scandinavian Nationals for the first time in the history of Gravity racing.

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After a long drive and endless talks about who was going to come in second place (We all know how was going to win) and how great the IGSA tour is going to be this summer, we finally got to the hill. Friday morning started at 10.00 am with practice, sun, plenty of smiles and a bunch of new faces that were amped to get down the 1200 meters the hill had to offer, maybe a bit too amped to get down the hill! Just before lunch one of the rides takes a bow and breaks his collarbone and as the true Viking he is, he showed no pain. We later found out that he had broken his collarbone in two places and has to go under the knife. On went the day and so did the smiles and fun with plenty of free rides after lunch and a lot of riders really picking up the pace, with plenty of riders shaking of the winters cold turkey and looking faster and faster, in fact things got so fast that we had to call a ambulance on the last ride at the last corner to pick up a dislocated shoulder.

Saturday and the sun was out again to bless us with a great day to do time trials, things got going at 9 am and went well all day. The time trials started with Fredrik Lindström putting down his foot and throwing up his finger with a massive 1.20.57 that was to put fear into the rest of the rides, Just before lunch Christoffer Sanne finds the line, the balls and the way to take Fredrik down by pulling a 1.20.26 out of the speed bucket, the hole hill fell silent even the squirrel stopped looking for his nuts, had a young buck finally dared to brave the mighty blue and put a feather in his bucket. Lunch was a wild talk about Christoffers hard riding and Fredriks grace why’ll chucking food into there faces. After Lunch the wind had died and it was time for the fight, who was going to get first place …Fredrik the wise or Christoffer the player …only time would tell and to spice things up we flipped the start order so that Fredrik would ride last. Now things were hot and Cristoffer Sanne was starting to worry a lot, some of the Norwegian riders were getting close and so were his friends, but not to worry because the young buck pulled down the curtain with a stone cold 1.19.63.

The Money was out and the bets were on, would he pull it off and be the first to brake the mighty blue, well Fredrik waited and so did we, little did we or Sanne know that the death star was lurking at the top of the hill, Fredrik dialled in the death ray and swept down the hill like the plague of Egypt and kicked Christoffer’s butt biblical style by engraving a 1.17.43 in to his speed bucket. With that down the day was over. Race day is here and all are in awe of Fredriks 1.17.43, with one question lingering in the air “how do you beat the devil and if you do what happens” well the dice were there and all they had to do was race. The heats were tight right from the start with Oliver Nielsen (Denmark) scratching Fredrik’s shadow all the way to the finish line, would he last all the way or die trying, more than one rider had there sights on and were fighting hard to get to the final to ride with the blest few or would they eat salad at one of the corer buffets?

Mathias Göranson was there to try but so was a Fin and a mountain man from Norway that had slapped face’s with the famous 1.19.63, Mathias told them time and time again that he would rather burn out than fade away then Dan Andersson stands up to the line to claim his fame while Mathias go’s all in with the rest of the crew but wips out letting Dan and Christoffer in to the final. On the other side of the bracket the great-dane had been put down and an unknown kid had slipped by while some rides were eating salad at the corner buffet while trying to catch the king of the hill in a haze of blue. Then out of the tunnel came some light, one of the old guys had to put up a fight, Anders Berglind rode with the heart of a lion and surprised the enemy right from the start with a kick inherited from a camel and speed from a hawk he past every kid on the hill until he too had to brave the might blue.

So here we are at the final

Dan Andersson kicks of to lead in to the sweeping left followed by the pack drafting him in to the right hair pin a 75km plus, right before the hair pin the pack passes him, with Fredrik coming out first and Christoffer second drafting Fredrik down the straight in to the tricky sweeping left (the Thai wall) after the short strait that leads in to the last 90 degree left hander Christoffer go’s for it and kisses the hand of the road and sells his soul only to be put straight by the wrath of the bail letting Anders the old roll past and in to second followed by Dan Andersson in to third leaving Christoffer in fourth.

Thanks a lot to Andreas Johnsen