Tiomila 2008 niende etappe

Niende etappe:
Damien Renard viser fransk klasse og holder KOK inne i tetstriden. Han veksler på 2. plass, 0:03 bak teten og har 3. beste etappetid. De tre tetlagene slipper ut på siste etappe i samlet flokk, nå er avstanden ned til de neste økt til 6:30.

Damien Renard shows French class and keeps KOK inn the match. He changes over in 2. place, 0:03 behind the lead and has 3rd best legtime. The three leading teams start on the last leg in a group, now the distance down to the next teams is 6:30.

Preparation
It was a nice day in Sweden early in the season. Usually, it is raining or at least cloudy during Tiomila. This year, it was nice weather and it was not cold as usual. I had a great felling when I heard on the Tio-radio that Mr Ivar Haugen had had a good run and Mr Jostein Andersen was in the lead together with OK Linné. Halden and Kalevan Rasti were not in front, so it was actually perfect for us. I was pretty confident about our last 4 runners. I didn't get stressed by this situation. The atmosphere at the KOK tent was relaxed. I got prepared without stress. Even my 7 months old baby (Elise) was sleeping well in her tent with other Kongsberg OL members. The warm up went well too. Baptiste and Holger had good runs too.

The race
I started in the lead. It was great to run in front. In fact it was not more difficult to run this race in the lead. I kept focused on map reading, and avoiding the big mistakes. I feel very comfortable with race of 30-50min duration, especially relays, so it was no big deal to run 9th leg at Tiomila. I had a good technical race all the way to the finish. I didn't notice the two others guys running around me so much. I knew my job was to be in front alone or in the pack to give Daniel the best position to secure a victory.


Winning (a dream come true?)
During Daniel's run, I was sure he would be able to secure the victory. I have seen him so many times at International relays running the last leg, and I was very confident. He is almost always first of the pack at the finish line. He has a very strong finish. I knew he could decide the relay in the forest too. But if they were together at last control, I was sure Daniel would be first to pass the finish line. On the run in I was expecting him to increase his pace up the hill right after the corner, exactly as he did.

Unreal
When he passed Emil Wingstedt I didn't think it was real... He was the fastest as expected. It was unbelievable. We ran like hell to the finish line to celebrate our victory. I haven't been a KOKer for a long time, but I was so happy to hug all of my team-mates. I felt so proud to be there, having achieved what we planned for at the WOC banquet with Holger and Daniel in Kiev. Hey guys, we did it!

The party in Kristiansand the Tuesday after was the best of all!