Endorphinmag News
01 – EndorphinMag.fr (EM) : Hi Bjorn, Silva is considered by the specialists as one of the favorite team for Adventure Racing World Championship in France in Spetember. Thanks to agree on this interview just before the race. Can you give us some details on the team members?
Team Silva Björn Rydvall (BR) :
We will race with the same team that we had in the APEX-race in June, Josefina, Mattias, Robert and myself. We all live near the same town, Umeå, in the north part of Sweden by the Baltic coast. We have been racing together since 2009, some of us longer than that. Living in the same town makes it easier to prepare together, since we all have pretty busy schedules with full time work, studies and children (Robert).
02 – EM : How did you prepare this world championship ? You were 2nd on the Apex Race. Endorphinmag were there. Were you satisfied on your race ? Have you seen some improvements required for the Raid In France ? Have you did some other races ?
BR : We have done our best to prepare for the long and steep mountains we expect to find in France. In Umeå our highest hill has 40 m of altitude, some of us have done more than 100 laps in that hill during the last weeks… During the summer we have raced mountain marathons and travelled to the higher mountains for some hill sessions.
We had a good race in APEX with a solid teamwork but some of our decisions, for example some route choices, were not the best and we lost important time. The swizz team that won APEX is very strong. We need to make better decisions to beat that kind of team!
03 – EM : You are one of the favorite team, do you agree ? For you what are the other favorite teams ? Which one is your most important opposition team ?
BR : For sure we have a good team and a very nice track record from ARWS last years. Still, every race is different and racing in the French Alps will be a real challenge for us, considering things such as high altitude, steep hills and the French language. There are many really strong teams on the lineup and I hope we are one amongst around ten teams that will fight for the podium in ARWS. Teams like Quecha, Thule and Buff will for sure have an advantage racing near their home and will be super strong, but still I think the Seagate will be even harder to beat…
04 – EM : Do you already know what will be your strategy during the world championship ? There will be 2 transitions areas with 4 hours stop mandatory ? The final result will be based on the full course or short one and there will be some shunts ? How will you apprehend all these parameters ?
BR : Our strategy is normally the same whatever race we are travelling to. Work hard together, keep up the pace, minimize the mistakes and try to enjoy the race.
05 – EM : what is your best activity (mountain biking, trekking, canoeing…) ? Do you think the team doesn’t have any weakness activity to be world champion in France ?
BR : We do not have a best discipline and hopefully not a real weakness either. During training we work hard to improve disciplines were we have lost time, rather than trying to improve where we normally perform well.
06 – EM : Do you agree on this 2 hours penalty rule : “Non-observance of cleanliness on a zone” ? Do you think adventure racing is an ecologic sport ? What tag you use to define your sport ? The race director Pascal Bahuaud likes “Raid in France is Back to Nature”.
BR : Yes, I think adventure racing should be an ecologic sport and there should not be any traces in nature from an adventure race. A good adventure race need a challenging nature but we are only visitors.
07– EM : The maps you will receive during the race are based on 1.25e or 1.50e scale. The orienteering is very important for the race director. The Raid in France is designed by specialist and all checkpoints are located on interesting points. How do you feel it ? Do you think you can make the decision by orienteering ?
BR : We like to navigate in the mountains and some time we also do it very well. All top teams in this world championship have at least one really good navigator, but we will do our best to be one of the teams with the least number of mistakes…
08 – EM :How do you explain the number of Swedish teams on the race? Most of them can be on the top 10 like Thule adventure, FJS, AXA-Adidas ? Most of them have large partners. Is there a real interest in adventure racing in Sweden with a public ?
BR : Interest for Adventure Racing in Sweden is growing, but still we are part of a very small sport with a small public compared to the large sports. Interest is growing and the possibility to follow races on internet is very important for the growth of the sport. One explanation to the big number of strong Swedish teams is probably that many of us have been racing for ten years or even more and gained useful experience during those years…
09 – EM : Do you want to thank you somebody before the race like your partners for example ?
BR : For sure we want to thank all our partners ; Silva, Helsport, Aclima, Hestra, Icebug, Trimtex, Uhrweder, Gainomax, Nordenmark, Mountain House, Jetboil, Source, Xinix , Litepac and EG Vilt. But we also want to thank our families and friends back home who support us and making it possible for us to spend much of our spare time training, racing and travelling!
EM : We wish you the best for this race, and we really would to thank you for this interview. We will be on the race for the live and we hope to take some pictures of your team.
Interview realized by Endorphinmag
September 2012
Who are we?
