Norwegian Lasse Fredriksen over the moon to rejoin the Edinburgh Monarchs

Norwegian Lasse Fredriksen says it's a dream come true to have rejoined the Edinburgh Monarchs for the club's 2023 Championship campaign.

The 25-year-old endured a stop-start maiden season with the Capital outfit this year and spent some time off the shale due to injury.

However, Fredriksen showed more than enough to suggest he can be a success in blue and gold and why co-promoters Alex Harkess and John Campbell were keen to bring him back.

The affable Scandinavian has a busy winter schedule ahead of him as he juggles preparing his bikes for the spring with the arrival of a new baby.

Lasse Fredriksen is back in the blue and gold. Picture: Jack Cupido.

"I'm really pleased," he said. "It was my dream and my first choice for what I should do next year. I have decided to pull out of international competitions for the time being and focus more on league racing with the Monarchs and also Valsarna my Swedish team. I found it hard last year when maybe I had matches over the weekend and had to travel overseas in between, and I finished up not doing well in any of them. This year I won't do that though.

"Last year sometimes I achieved what I wanted, and sometimes not. I was struggling to find consistency, so that is what I am looking for in 2023. Missing matches was disappointing, especially because I wanted to ride all the tracks during the season. I missed Plymouth, Poole and Birmingham in the middle of the season."

Fredriksen is expected to slot into the No.2 position once more but will have a new partner in Josh Pickering.

He added: "I did enjoy Armadale. It was a fun track to ride. Again, I would like to have been more consistent and I thought I would come to terms with it more quickly, but I am sure I can do better next season.

"I loved riding with Sam (Masters). I was able to learn from him and watch where he was riding. I never got to ride at reserve but the main body of the team is where I want to be. The whole team was awesome, I really got to know them all and because we lived near each other."

Monarchs 2023 confirmed: Josh Pickering, Kyle Bickley, Jacob Hook, Kye Thomson, Lasse Fredriksen.