By: Emma Wichardt

Everyone a little familiar with adventure racing has probably heard of team Nike ACG/Balance Bar. Two times world champions and winner of major races on all continents. And this year they have chosen to come to Explore Sweden.

From the left, Dan Weiland, Monique Merrill, Mike Kloser and Michael Tobin.

Thrilled by the idea of a race with winter legs of skiing and mountaineering, the teams expectations are to do very well. With Mike Kloser and Dan Weiland, two really strong skiers and winners of the Elk Mountain Travers two years in a row, that is very likely to happen.

"We are racing with 2 new team members and hope that this race gives them good exposure to the expedition length races," says Mike. "We all met in Moab, UT a couple of weeks ago to train and sort some gear ideas out.  It is hard to train a lot together with everyone's different schedules. I think we are prepared, but we also know the competition will be good."

Being one of the very best teams in the world, you would think that the pressure is on by everyone around. And Mike confirms that, but not the pressure from sponsors, but from themselves. "We always feel pressure to do well. We know that we are the team everyone wants to beat. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves not just because we are world champions or because of sponsors.  It is much more rewarding to do well." And he continues "We would, of course, like to do very well, but we know that the Scandinavians will be very tough. There are plenty of teams that can do well, especially with orienteering legs involved."

The teams weakest side, according to Mike, is probably the fact that we have never raced as these 4 before and that Dan has very little expedition length race experience.

But nevertheless, the team is most likely going to be up there fighting to win the race and defend their title as one of the very best adventure racing teams in the world.