Samuel Brännlund - Zwiftest in Sweden - Sigr Cycling Stories

Cold and dark

Living up here in the frozen north, we at Sigr are used to people wondering what we get up to during the cold winter evenings.

Meet Sam

We called up our friend Samuel Brännlund who uses his winter evenings in a way that we definitely approve of and we're pretty sure you can guess what it is. ;)

Samuel is 43 years old and lives only a very hard stone’s throw of 123 km away from Sigr HQ, in the beautiful little town of Lycksele. He lives happily with his partner, 3 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 rabbits, a few hamsters and a couple of pet rats.

The rise of Sam

His success in cycling started in 2016 when he won the Swedish MTB cup and made it into the top 10 for men aged 30 and over.

The crash

He hardly had time to celebrate before disaster struck when he broke, of all things a cyclist absolutely does not want to break, his thigh bone in a very bad crash.

The rest of 2016 became rest and recuperation but Sam never lost sight of that cycling future that meant so much to him.

In 2017 he made it back into the saddle, albeit feeling a little less brave than he once did with the crash still fresh in his memory.

Nonetheless, in typical hero-style, he did not give up.

Living in the Swedish wilderness town of Lycksele, where you can only easily cycle for 7 months of the year is challenging to say the least if you want to really go all in with cycling. This is compounded by the fact that you will always be limited by the strength of local talent if you yourself, have talent.

Then came Zwift.

Indoor training with other riders of a similar level became easy.

Sam got better.

Within the next year, he had won the Swedish cup and become Swedish national champion in the elite class.

Things were looking up. ;)

In 2019, Sam was climbing fast up the global rankings. But of course the climbing had to stop sometime.

It stopped because he had reached the top! He was ranked number 1 in the world on Zwift!

IRL

This renewed success gave Sam the motivation he needed to try cycling outside IRL again and in 2021, he finished on the podium, taking silver in the Nordic championship.

More recently he was the only Swede to qualify for both of the UCI sanctioned World Championship races and achieved an amazing 16th place finish.

Qualifying for the 2021 World Championships in road cycling was another amazing achievement for this cycling machine. Unfortunately it was to end prematurely when Sam crashed out in the final stages with only 4 other riders in the running for a podium finish.

Sam is hoping for revenge in the same race this year. We wish him all the best and will be keeping out fingers crossed or “holding our thumbs” as we say here in Sweden.

An inspiration

Sam, you are an inspiration to us. Coming back after a major crash and rising to number one in the world is not something many of us will achieve and we salute you.

You are a true local hero.

We gave Sam one of our brand spanking new PRO recycled Dahlia jerseys to take for a spin.

In his own words - “I love the fact that from 2023, Sigr will be using recycled fabric in all new products. A small brand leading the way is cool. The jersey itself fits very well, feels good against the skin and is excellently ventilated. It looks great and works well so it’s a definite win-win from me!”

Follow Sam’s adventures on Instagram @simon.brannlund and on his blog