The Elitserien final will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week in Sweden as Eskilstuna Smederna meet Målilla Dackarna in a repeat of last year’s final which saw Smederna take their second title in two years.
The final starts in Eskilstuna and the quality of the riders shows in that many were involved the Cardiff SGP on Saturday and then the finale of the Ekstraliga in Poland as places 1-4 were decided on Sunday.
That includes for Smederna, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Fredrik Lindgren and for Dackarna Maciej Janowski, Piotr Pawlicki and Patryk Dudek.
And I think the form of the last named person in these two matches could be the key difference between the teams.
Jepsen Jensen, Lindgren, Piotr Pawlicki and Janowski are reliable top scorers and usually win 10 or more points in each game. In that sense they will neutralise each other in this tie.
That leaves Dudek left in the deciding role - on his best days he is the top rider in this elite group - the person that was joint leading the SGP series in the first four rounds earlier this year.
But the 27 year old, who has already served a doping ban in 2014, can also struggle. He has, for example, only scored six points in the last two SGPs combined and was one of the bottom three riders both times.
In the Semis and 3/4th Playoffs in Poland he scored either 6 or 11 in each of the four matches as Zielona Gora lost both series to finish fourth in the league. His last four matches in Sweden also show similar yo-young tendencies.
So how will it go for him at the end of a long season? Will he rise to the occasion or be suffocated by the pressure?
By Wednesday by 21:00hrs we’ll know who is the new Swedish champion and whether Dudek, alongside with his Dackarna teammates, will be celebrating Gold or commiserate another Silver.
