![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mika-8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Esports<\/a><\/p>\n In some countries, the federations and their athletes embrace cycling esports alongside traditional disciplines.<\/p>\n When she won the first of her back-to-back Swedish Road Race Championships in 2024, the then 24-year-old Mika So\u0308derstro\u0308m attacked with 75 km to go on the 122 km course, finishing solo in Link\u00f6ping with a margin of over eight minutes<\/a>. The script was different the following year, but the result wasn’t \u2013 despite the need to change up her tactics as a solo rider while also being forced to chase everything that went up the road.<\/p>\n “I couldn’t pull off a 75 km solo break to win like I did last year because everyone knew I could do it,” So\u0308derstro\u0308m explains. With 1,500 m to go, she launched an “all-out attack, and when they realized, it was too late,” she says, describing the decisive defense of her title by a slimmer seven seconds<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Second across the line was Emila Fahlin<\/a>, who presently rides for ProTeam Ark\u00e9a-B&B Hotels and is the career UCI points leader among active Swedish women<\/a>. So\u0308derstro\u0308m also bested WorldTeam Liv AlUla Jayco’s Caroline Anderson<\/a>, the third on the list, and Julia Borgstr\u00f6m<\/a>, who sat fourth behind Anderson, and is presently riding for WorldTeam AG Insurance-Soudal.<\/p>\n On the short list<\/p>\n Granted, Sweden doesn\u2019t boast the deep road racing tradition of Europe\u2019s storied nations, or even the Scandinavian pedigree of Denmark and Norway. But try finding another two-time defending national champion who isn\u2019t riding on the road for a professional or even Continental team. It isn’t a long list.<\/p>\n Yet in S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m, the country has produced a rare talent, one who has twice won her national road title without the backing of a professional team. That distinction alone makes her an outlier, but her career chronicle becomes even more compelling when you consider that she is also Sweden\u2019s two-time defending cycling esports champ, that she balances elite competition with a PhD in biomedical engineering, and that she doesn’t identify first and foremost as a road racer.<\/p>\n “In the media and within Swedish cycling, people call me the esports rider doing well on the road,” she says, “but as time has passed, I would call myself an esports specialist.”<\/p>\n This post is for paying subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/17339225339092.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Subscribe now<\/a><\/p>\n
\n \ud83d\udc4eNope\n <\/p>\n