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Reebok/Maxim Finishes Sixth; Two Swedish Teams in Top Ten

Susan McKenzie / 05.08.2004

For a small country, Sweden is starting to make quite an impression in adventure racing. Cross Sportswear’s stunning second place showing last night has been followed by the sixth place finish of Reebok/Maxim, captained by Mikael Nordstrom, the race director of another AR World Series event, Explore Sweden.

Nordstrom and his teammates Malin Lundvik, Magnus Persson and Peter Bringby were expected to finish sometime around sunrise, so when eight o’clock came and went and there was still no sign of the team, people started to wonder.

“When we arrived at CP19, we were so cold and shivering, so we stopped there to warm up, and we stayed three and a half hours,� says Nordstrom. “We were ready to go if GoLite Timberland arrived, because we know we are faster, but they never arrived so we were able to stay as long as we wanted.�

When they did arrive at the last canoe section, just a mini paddle across a small river with their bikes on board, they were making really good speed and were moments away from the finish line before people realised where they were.

For the first part of the race, the team kept pace with the leaders.

“On the first trek we went much faster than we usually do, and kept their pace, but then just moved into our own pace and knew we could do well like that,� says Nordstrom. “We slept four hours the first night and that was a good decision. It gave us a lot of energy so we were able to really push hard after that.�

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