The Norwegian Elka distributor, Raceready, has a new rider on the team this year. 18 years old Lars Sandviken, as well as 20 years old Kenneth Røgeberg, witch have been on the team since last year. Lars is really stoked to get the support from Elka and Raceready this year, and have stepped up his riding a lot! He is really surprised about how easily he can control his bike, and how reliable the suspension performs in hot conditions and rough tracks. That’s the same experience as Kenneth had last year. With very good help and support from Arman at Raceready, they easily set up the suspension just the way they like it.
The team started the season with a week of Easter training in Malaga in Spain. They got a lot of good training, and were increasing the speed a lot. Here is a short edit of Lars Sandviken in Spain: http://vimeo.com/41181194
The next race was a national cup, and Lars finished on a surprisingly 3rd place, and was very happy. Kenneth had some problems, and finished on 17th, and was disappointed. The following race was a local Last-cup, and Lars was finishing 1st and Kenneth 2nd.
This weekend it was time for the Nordic championship on our local track. Both riders were super stoked, and had a good feeling. The training was going very well, and the suspension worked excellent in the hot and dry conditions. Lars finished on a surprisingly 2nd place in the semi finals, and Kenneth finished 10th. Both riders were happy, and knew they had to pedal a lot more to keep and maybe improve the results for the finals. Lars gave it everything he had in the finals, and managed to get the silver medal in the Nordic championship. Kenneth had some problems in the last section, but only lost 2-3 seconds and still managed to finish 10th. Both riders is very happy with the race weekend and the results.
Next up for Lars is the WC in Val di Sole, and Fort William. This will be his first international experience, and we wish him the best of luck! Kenneth is going for a training weekend to Hafjell in Norway for a couple of races, and training in the WC round 7 tracks. Stay tuned for more MTB news on the Elka blog!