Despite the lack of royal visitors, Valhallcrossen was quite the success. I had to fix my brakes yet again before the start so that was a bit of stress I could have done without.

Since I have been having energy problems after 30 min of maxpuls (duh, wonder why???), I did an experiment and took one of those Enervit enervitene liquid gels after my test lap but before starting. This is what they suggest to drink after about 45 min of activity but I thought why not take it a wee bit early. And that strategy was a success!

There were 39 people starting in the veteran class which was quite amazing. The start went pretty much as usual and most took off but by the first hill (the only one, actually) there was a group of 5 of us still together. This course was mostly grass but my red tires worked perfectly in this. In fact, my dismount and jumping over the two obstacles was textbook. And running in the sand was much better than riding today since the sand was long and had a hairpin curve.

(Picture: Henrik Öijer www.cxcupen.se)

So what about those other 4 riders. One I took care of quickly but with the other 3 it was fight all the way. We were jumping positions all the time but I never let them get too far away. To catch them all I needed was a bit of a sprint in the grass. I was passed in the sand once and also in the slalom bit that was up and down a small hill in the field. But in the other parts I could pass and that felt great!

How did it finish, you say? Did my tire fall off? Actually, it didn't. With two laps to go we were getting lapped and I did a bit of a sneaky move and just pretended I was with the faster group. =) The guy realized but by then I had taken off. And the next had no energy left so he was gone. I also had no energy but I saw that they were stopping everyone so we wouldn't need to do the extra lap. So I could give it everything I had now and still finish. I realized this a bit late to pass the next guy but I was pretty damn close.

So, for the first time in CX veteran class I did not finish last among those who actually did finish! 36th place is just fine for me. I am satisfied...