Direct after Thüringen we (my team) went to Vårgårda, where the races will be this weekend.
There we have had some nice days of relax and we have had time to see the circuit of the timetrail and the roadrace. Both will give hard races especially if it keeps being so windy!

After the last World Cup in Montreal (in May) I took some important points and I´m now back in lead of the World Cup, 45 points ahead of Marianne Vos. This weekend I will do everything i can to defend it!

Tomorrow is the teamtimetrail and first start is at 18:00 o´clock in Herrljunga with the finish in Vårgårda.
For the roadrace on Sunday the start is at 13:00 o´clock in Vårgårda.

Here you can find a link to the website of the World Cup.

Hope to see many Swedish supporters cheering for us :)

Emma

An early break got the last chance to race for a victory in Thüringen. RedSun had Petra Dijkman there and she did an excellent job. After a hard day she finished 3rd behind Luperini and Holler. 
I finished in the group on a 16th place.

So finally to sum up the week ; one 2nd place, one victory and a 5th place in the GC.

At the moment we are half way to Sweden, just stopped along the road on a hotel. Tomorrow we go with the boat to Denmark and then we drive the last piece to Vårgårda.

Emma

Emma won the 5th stage in Thüringen-Rundfahrt after a working hard in 3 woman big breakaway togheter with Ljungskog and Düster.

1. Emma Johansson

2. Susanne Ljungskog

3. Sarah Düster

More news at official website her.

Foto!

More to come….

Timetrail yesterday and as I thought I went down a bit more in the GC when Soeder showed her class in timetrailing and finished as first. I was 1:58 min(!) behind her and finished on a 11th place.

Only two stages left of this tour…  

Emma

After a long breakaway of 8 riders where two made it to the finish 46sec ahead of the peleton, I lost some ground in the general classification.

Ended 7^th on the stage and dropt to 5^th 40sec after the new leader, Louisa Tamanini.

Didn’t have a great day, but felt “asleep” as the break road away.

Hope to be more on top of the game tomorrow as we got a long and hard stage around Schleiz.

Foto: Alain Senesal

Emma

I ended 2nd today, after a great first stage her in Thüringen. I suffered through the whole race and didn’t feel good once. Maybe a good sign that I ended on the podium and that everyone else must have felt the same. Marianne Vos is strong and won, so now its up to her and her team to control. I will try to attack her when the good legs returns and the “holyday legs” have left my body. Just need some more racing to once again adapt to racing speed and all the suffering. Think my training mates back home in Norway need to kick my ass more and stop been that nice…

The race was fun and everyone raced offensive and with a lot of attacking. I went away at 4k to go with 3 others, but the peleton caught us on the final 2k and I ended up to far down before the sprint.

Look forward to more hard days, as I got good memories from last year.

You can follow the race live on the organizers liveticker her , or  race website and Cyclingnews.

Emma

Took the victory in Maarkedal today after riding solo for more than 70km. Maarkedal is close to my home town and all my supporters were there, I loved sharing this race with them! :) Had a good feeling and I think I´m ready for Thüringen now…

Leaving tomorrow at 7 o´clock!

Sweet Dreams
Emma

 19/07/2009- MAARKEDAL (O)

1. JOHANSSON Emma                  REDSUN CYCLING TEAM               02:19:00

2.VERBEKE Grace                                LOTTO-BELISOL LADIESTEAM         :01:46

3.HENRION Ludivine                         REDSUN CYCLING TEAM                    :03:34

4.SILVERSIDES Emma                       LOTTO BELISOL Ladiesteam                :05:47

5.BRULEE Latoya                                REDSUN CYCLING TEAM                     :05:56

6.DEBBOUDT Lensy                            KEUKENS REDANT CYCLING TEAM

7.STEENSSENS Nana                          V.Z.W. ROYAL ANTWERP BICYCLE CLUB

8.MAYHO HANNAH

9.POLSPOEL Maaike                           TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN-THOMPSON LADIES TEAM

10.HIERCKENS Corine                       FENIXS

My bigest fans!

My vacation and trainingcamp is going toward its end. Only two days left and then I go to Belgium. Have not been there for a while and I really look forward to see everyone again :)
A teamtraining on Thursday and then a kermisrace in the weekend before I leave to Germany for the stagerace Thüringen Rundfahrt.

  Another six hours on the bike today and I´m happy Martin is tired to!

  Emma

After the Championship I have had a small rest. I spent some lovelly days in Skara together with my friends, talking about old times and what will happen in the future :)

At the moment I`m back in Norway and my trainingcamp have started. The last three days I have done long rides together with Martin and on Saturdays training we had company from Tom Tveitan, a photographer from Ramnes.

He have put some more photos on his website (www.tomtveitanfoto.blogspot.com) and I absolutely love the results.
Thank you Tom for spending the day with us :)

Emma