Explore Sweden

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Cross: many times a bridesmaid...finally a bride.

Susan McKenzie / 17.05.2005

It’s not often that a team finishes a race in less time than the race director predicted.
But that’s exactly what happened at Explore Sweden 2005. Mikael Nordstrom calculated the winning team would take seventy-eight hours: Cross Sportswear took only seventy-six hours and twenty minutes to complete the six hundred kilometre course.

\"That\'s mainly because of the ski conditions,\" explains Nordstrom. \"When we did those sections, the snow was rotten, plus we thought we would have more spring snow at this time of year. But the ski conditions here were perfect, so they went faster.\"

The snow obscured the team’s initial descent down to the finish line at Kittelfjall. Dark blurry images appeared at the top of the hill, only to be revealed as rocks, or trees. Then shortly before four, a few blurry images appeared; only these ones were moving down the hill.

One by one they crossed the finish line: Per Vestling, Anders Widegren, Mats Andersson then, finally Natasha Westling. The snow was thick and blinding, fat white flakes that soaked everything but their faces, which remained muddy from the kickbike section

It’s not only Cross Sportswear’s first victory at Explore Sweden, it’s their first adventure racing victory ever. Last year at this race they came second. At the Adventure Racing World Championship in Newfoundland, Canada last year, they crossed the finish line a scant twenty-two seconds after first place Nike ACG/Balance Bar. Their list of wins is littered with second and third and fifth place finishes. Now, finally, it will include a first.

“Second, second, second, I’m tired of coming second,� Natasha Westling laughs. “We have come so close so many times. It feels nice to finally win one.�

“And we will only ever come first from now on,� says Widegren. “Well, that would be good, but maybe not.�

When Cross took the lead yesterday, its members were reluctant to consider that they could win. Even today, they refused to accept they might win.

“I didn’t dare to imagine it,� says Westling. “When were skiing, people kept saying they (Lundhags) are behind you. Then on the kickbikes we kept looking back to see if they were there. Even at the Via Ferrata, we were looking out, saying ‘Are they coming? Are they coming? I guess it was only once we were back on the skis that we realized that they could not catch up.�

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