I am sure you know that Långloppscupen, the Swedish MTB marathon series is underway. And since they have added my blog to their RSS feed, I will happily write a few lines on this.

For the glada motionär that spends their Sundays around Hellasgården (Sthlm) or Skatås (Gbg), an MTB marathon is usually a goal for those sick of looking at someone's ass for 10+ hours in Vätternrundan. This is how I got interested in MTB and is what we should focus our efforts on. Långloppscupen is a winning concept so I support this happily. I have paid for Ränneslättsturen many times but have never managed to actually do it. Injuries, car trouble, sickness...you name it, fate is against me for that race.

Just by geography, Lida Loop is probably the first race people do. While many say Mörksuggajakten is the 'easiest', I can argue with that. Lida Loop does not have any 'suicidal XC-style terrain' even if Diagonalen is a bit tougher. It does have a lot of roots in parts towards the end but the rest is fine. I have heard people call Lida the grusvägsrally and most of the first kms are on grusväg. Since it is always sunny for that race, be prepared for a ton of dust in your eyes and some pretty close riding while everyone fights their way along these motionspår. They also talk about hills but these are not anything to be scared of unless you come from Uppsala where you never see any hills. It goes up and down a few metres for the whole race but there are no 300m vertical mountains to conquer. Of course after 50km, any little change in elevation can hurt.

I have done Lida Loop twice and won a prize both times so my memories are quite positive. They end the race with a loop up the slalom hill where I passed many people both times I did this race. So remember to save a bit of energy for that since the crowd will love it. And nothing is better than a crowd cheering you on when you are less than a km from finishing your first MTB marathon.