Saturday is the day for the winter’s first Swedish long-distance skiing race. A strong starting field will face the tough 15 laps on the two kilometers loop in Edsåsdalen.

December 10 is the time for the Ski Classics Season XIV premiere. The Pro Teams and athletes are now thoroughly preparing for what awaits in Bad Gastein, Austria.

Today, Lager 157 Ski Team starts its first camp for the season on “outdoor snow” (the team was in Torsby a few months ago):

“Much focus will be on material tests,” says Lager 157 Ski Team’s head of waxing, Marcus Laggar.

Laggar is also the race leader for Saturday’s long-distance premiere in Edsåsdalen.

Just over 60 skiers are registered, and more than half of these will be on the Ski Classics this winter. One of the skiers was perhaps the biggest surprise last weekend at Bruksvallarna, Alvar Myhlback:

“We’re at camp in Edsåsdalen this week, and I’ll be racing at the long-distance premiere. Then it’s Bad Gastein. What happens after that depends a bit on how things go. But I absolutely believe that it is possible to go to the World Cup later this winter,” summed up Alvar Myhlback after his impressive efforts during the competitions in Bruksvallarna, where he came third in the sprint; and seventh and eighth in the distance races.

Myhlback will be in Edsåsdalen racing against his teammates in the Pro Team Lager 157 Ski Team and youth team. In addition, Alfred Buskqvist, Team Ramudden, and Eddie Edström, Team Engcon, will be on the starting line, to name a few athletes.

On the women’s side, Ida Dahl is starting. Dahl made a big impression in Bruksvallarna by finishing fourth and fifth in the distance races. Team Engcon’s teammate Frida Hallqvist is also starting, as well as Emilie Fleten, Team Ramudden, Karolina Hedenström and Linnea Johansson, Lager 157 Ski Team, to mention some skiers.

A challenging course awaits the skiers:

“We want to keep the course compact, so it will be a competition near the stadium in Edsåsdalen. We will run a loop in the stadium, around the biathlon range, then there will be a “hill” up the slalom slope where there was a sprint prize in the Ski Classics. We don’t go all the way up, but the fifteen laps will be a challenge,” says Laggar.

The men will start at 11:00 CET and the women at 11:01 CET.