The revolution will not be televised

We watched a really good programme on TV last night: En klassiker (A Classic). It was the first episode of five and while we may not watch the remaining programmes in the series, we are really glad we stumbled across this one.

Four participants have done what is called "en svensk klassiker" ("a Swedish classic"), which means that they did:

Ski the Vasaloppet skiing competition - 90 km
Run the Lidingöloppet running competition - 30 km
Swim the Vansbrosimningen swimming competition - 3 km
Ride the Vätternrundan cycling competition - 300 km

All within a year. That's pretty impressive! Since we are really not that into swimming and running those episodes don't really interest us, but yesterday's episode was about when they rode the Vätternrundan cycling competition. Think about it: Cycling 300 km... That's no small feat.

The participants were:

Tobias Nilsson. 35 years old.
Hannah Zeijland. 29 years old.
Stefan Odelberg. 38 years old.
Rasmus Henning. 37 years old.

You can see a presentation of them here (in Swedish).

The first episode was interesting. It turned out that one of the participants hadn't really cared that much to prepare himself for the race, he thought that the idea that you should have ridden at least 1000 km before you enter the Vätternrundan race was rubbish. Another participant had problems with his knees and did this because he had to show to himself and others that he could actually do it, that he could complete something. The third was all pepped up for it and just wanted to do this, even though she too had had knee problems.

And then there was that Danish guy... A triathlon athlete. So OK, he's super serious about competing and if that's what he wants to do, then that's cool. For him. And it's possible that he's a really cool and nice guy in real life, but in the programme he just seemed so bloody self-conceited and self-centred. And with that Colgate smile of his... He seemed to have a pretty stuck-up attitude towards the other participants too. He finished the race in 7:05 hours and afterwards stood there, smiling. "It felt better than expected. It feels really good."

(Rasmus Henning, just about Colgate smiling. We kind of borrowed the picture from Sveriges Television. Hope that's cool!)

But we just loved the other participants. Especially Tobias Nilsson. With that laid back accent and laid back attitude he was actually hard not to love. With his friend with him too, as coach and moral support. His friend has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis so he can't compete, but he concentrated all his effort into helping Tobias Nilsson do this. Tobias Nilsson also shared his completing the race with his friend. He completed the race in 19 hours and we just felt immense respect for him. 19 hours on a bicycle saddle... That's no small feat either.

(Tobias Nilsson fighting. We kind of borrowed the picture from Sveriges Television. Hope that's cool!)

You can watch the episode here, for the next 28 days. We highly recommend it. It put a broad smile on our faces.

(Hannah Zeijland getting ready. We kind of borrowed the picture from Sveriges Television. Hope that's cool. And we hope that it's cool if we say that she's beautiful too, because she is.)

 (Stefan Odelberg, acting out his Rocky fantasies. We kind of borrowed the picture from Sveriges Television. Hope that's cool.)