I’m Hugo Röjgård and yes, that’s me and my bike casually laying on the burned ground.
“If my head were filled with fear I woulden’t have space for daydreams”
I grew up in a house in the forest on an island outside Stockholm. I clearly remember my first bicycle. It was gold-colored with a white luggage carrier and gray tires. Cycling was the best thing I knew. Now, when I cycle in the forest, I feel exactly the same joy and calm as I did back then.
Today, I work full-time developing mountain biking and cycling tourism in Sweden. I compete in enduro, but most often I just cycle without any specific goal, simply because I love it.
In 2023, I participated in a climate conference. What I learned scared the hell out of me. But I also met some people who had smiles on their faces and who found strength in the work of change. They came from Protect Our Winters Sweden (POW). It’s not just about the winter as the name might surgest, it’s all connected. It wasn’t hard to recruit me, and since then, I have also been part of POW. As a mountain biker, there was also an important task to take on.
As an ambassador in POW’s Athletes Alliance, I try to make the invisible visible to more people. Willingness to change instead of perfection is POW’s motto. I am far from perfect, but I am determined to get better, learn more, and try to get others to find the insight I have gained. Or at least get some to understand a bit more of the seriousness that all research undeniably confirms over and over again. But there is still hope! Many good things are happening, which we must remind ourselves of.
