Emil Persson had a solid race at Marcialonga, finishing second behind teammate Runar Skaug Mathisen. Emil had a few tough training sessions when he returned from Italy.

“I felt tired but kept training and did some really tough training sessions. Then I caught a minor cold and had to rest for a few days,” says Emil Persson to Langd.se.

Therefore, Jizerská50 being canceled didn’t upset him too much.

“Of course, it was disappointing that it was canceled. But from my side, I didn’t need to rush back and risk anything, as I would likely have been at the start. I could be at home and get back into training,” Persson explains.

His sights are set on this weekend’s Ski Classics races in Orsa Grönklitt. A long-distance race of 60km awaits on Saturday (Grönklitt Classic), and the season’s second individual time trial (Grönklitt ITT) on Sunday.

Read More – Grönklitt weekend: Ski Classics goes to Sweden

“Vasaloppet is the big goal that I’m tailoring my training towards. You could say that Orsa serves as training for that.”

“The idea was to get in some tough training days before this weekend’s races.”

What are your thoughts on the competitions in Grönklitt? 

“Saturday’s long-distance race will be fun. It’s a tricky track, maybe not the world’s best long-distance track,” he says and continues:

“I’m not a big fan of individual starts, but I did win last year and will try to do something similar this year,” Emil Persson concludes.