I decided it was time to get the truth about my tape questions...does Tufo make the yellow cyclocross tape anymore and whether the orange Extreme is fine. I trusted CC Lasses opinion but I have heard different things from others and online. So I contacted Tufo and asked. Their response was surprising. They said no tape will ever work for CX and that I should use glue from Vittoria instead. Bit of a strange tip eller hur? Then I could just as well by tires from Vittoria instead.

After the weekend's disaster in terms of grip and performance, I am having my doubts of whether tubular tires are right for me. For the first thing, no one seems to sell them so I have to search online and deal with long delivery times, not to mention the 700kr price tag per tire.

Tubular are supposed to mean less flats yet there have been a few already at Hondacrossen and in Tidan. In MTB we use clincher and learn how to avoid punka risks. Why can't I do the same on my CX?

Then tubular are supposed to be lighter. This point I can agree on. But after a look at the Vittoria website, they have some pretty light clinchers. Besides, when you are as slow as I am, will 200g make that much difference?

And of course the main argument is the tire pressure. In Tidan I ran at 2.7 bar which I think is the lowest I can go with the tape and tires I have. Honestly, I think this is insanely low when I use the same pressure on my massive MTB tires. But I felt no improvements at all in terms of grip in the grass. And this whole thing with pressure is really a compromise anyway since sometimes you want higher pressure on those gravel sections.

Most of my doubts are around the gluing itself. If you are lucky, it will last 2 races. The yellow tape lasted much longer but not when I wash the bike in the shower. And the cost of a bucket of glue is not tempting either. So I don't know.

Finally, a true sign that CX season is approaching fast. Falu CK has just posted their invitation here. Naturally, the fun begins at Lugnet...mecca of all sport.

I am also very pleased to see that the värvning rule does not apply for gubbklass. Falun here we come! But first a couple trips to Skatås for training sand and stairs.

I have 20 minutes leftover before I need to leave for Bilprovningen to see if my car will last another year. So why not throw a couple parts on the new cross? I should have everything I need now.

After a day like today, I wish I was at Hondacrossen instead. I really shouldn't be writing about this here but I am frustrated and need to clear my head. The Medical faculty at Göteborgs Universitet arranged a 1-day seminar for people like me with a PhD and no tillsvidare position or really any stability at all. The point was to tell us what options we have out in the big big world and maybe give us some hope. Here were some of the suggestions...

Suggestion #1: Join a union which understands your problem and can try to convince the university to change. But the university is already aware of the problem and is waiting for cash to come from the government.

Suggestion #2: Go to Medical school. What a great tip. Why didn't I think about that in 1996? If I had wanted to be a doctor I would have already done that.

Suggestion #3: Work with a temp place like Proffice or Adecco. Yes, that is definitely more stable.

Suggestion #4: Use your innovative research idea to start a company. First, my research is on alcoholism which most people think is not a real disease. And we still don't know how alcohol is working even after much study both in and outside of the lab. =) But if they want an innovative idea, I can invent a little robot in a flying ship that will go around your body and shoot all the alcohol molecules. Yes...that should attract investors.

Suggestion #5: Listen to advice from people you know. Most I know have told me to get into medical writing. So I started a company as a 'Plan B'. But Swedish companies seem to write everything internally and charging people at the university for my writing talent is far more complicated than you could imagine.

Suggestion #6: Apply for any jobs that you really want. I would if anyone had anything even remotely close to what I can do.

So what is my conclusion? If you have a tillsvidare job in this country, do everything you can to keep it. There are no jobs in Sweden...period.

Meanwhile, I should try and get into importing cycling parts or something. Any brands you would like to see in Sweden that aren't already here?

So, it seems like I will have to miss Hondacrossen tomorrow night. I have a rather large pile of work to do. That same pile will also mean cancelling my Odense trip. But I will definitely make time for Introcross which starts this Saturday. More on that later.

I just took a break and ran down to CykelCity to get some remaining things for the new Ridley. Hopefully things will go smoothly with the rest. But I did hear the bad news that they do not have any Tufo gluing tape and can't get any more either. Crap. Just when I need both tires and tape. Guess I will have to search the web and find some...fast.

For those of you dying to see more from yesterday's Focus Cross Race, here are some links. The results can be found here and here. And you can see tons of pictures here. Some highlights (of me) include...

This is the first of the two slippery corners. I must have been going slow at that point because my line is right. Every other lap I was way out.



And his was the löphinder, probably from the first lap when I didn't jump it so well because of my stinging leg.



And here is the downhill section where I didn't seem to brake at all. Really? I guess that was true.

After a rainy drive and a foggy Skövde, the weather got better as I pulled into Tidan. Better means grey but not raining. I rushed out to take a test lap before Sportklass and thought the track was quick fun. But when I took another lap just before the start, the first thing I did was slide massively in the first corner. Hmm.

The start went well and I was keeping up for quite awhile. Everyone in front of me slowed down at the little MTB section through the forest which was fun. The guy directly in front of me got stuck in the little ditch and took a rather spectacular vurpa into the bushes so I passed him. Then it came to the little grass valley/hill thing which I decided to try and ride. It started well and I was almost up the hill but I slipped and fell over landing in some plant that burns like hell. By the time I had come back around to that section, my leg was on fire. And it still is now. Only I could manage this. Just like in Farrisrundan when I fell into an electric cow fence.

After that it was going well and I was trying to catch the next guy up. On Lap 2 I slid pretty bad in both of the grusväg corners and at the forest part I took the root section on a bad angle and almost hit the tree. But it was still going fast. Coming up to the jump section I caught up to Mattias and I could hear the punka on his back wheel. He said 'I'll catch up to you later.' and I took off. Of course at this moment I was passed by the guy who fell in the first lap. So now it was chase time.

In Lap 3 the prestige guys started lapping me and I was starting to slide everywhere. I was losing pace compared to the guy in front so I just started getting cautious hoping they would get tired. I took the löphinder with quite the jump but my stupid pedals were full of mud so I could not get clipped in. That happened for each of the remaining laps. The section with the rock band at the finish line also had a nice little jump and mud hill so when I get pictures I will post them.

Right, so then what about Mattias. Apparently while I was cautious he was slowly gaining on me. He passed me at the finish line and suddenly I was awake again. I was on his tail through the nasty grus corners and up until the MTB section but he was superior in the grass section and I was done again.

By this point there were 2 laps left but by pure luck the prestige group lapped me again at the grass section. I need to work on riding in muddy grass. So I sped up and did my best since, as expected, I didn't have to do the last lap.

And this was good enough for 9th place of 12 in veteranklass! Even if the others were DNF, it still felt good. But what have I learned today? Do NOT fall in bushes. Do NOT relax in the middle of the race. And, most importantly, Tufo Prestige 30 tires are absolutely useless in wet conditions.

After, they opened up the Cykeldistribution warehouse which was full of many fine bikes from Focus. Finally they have started following colour trends because they had some very cool designs. I had to leave before the urges of 'Oooh...me want buy NOW!' took over.

So, CX season is officially started and Chris Cross wants more!

I promised the return of a favourite Friday night activity and here you have it...Friday night glue party! On the last lap of Hondacrossen my back tire was bouncing every rotation on the road section. A sure sign of some future gluing.

Because I am lazy, I use the Tufo tape. Can someone answer me this...do they only sell Tufo Extreme now? I had two Tufo Cyclocross (the yellow box) and I can't figure out if this is better than the Extreme. The last time I glued them was October 2009 so I would say that the yellow did the job. But the orange was even more user friendly.

The front tire seems okay still but I will have an hour between warm-up and my race while sportklass is racing in case I need to re-glue that too. The forecast calls for 10C, rain in the morning and then cloudy. Sounds just about right...

This morning there was a guy on the bus that looked precisely like cross legend Sven Nys. Is it too warm in Belgium now? Maybe he has to travel and try out some of my favourtite hills in the 10C weather? Or maybe I just need to get more sleep...

First some work, then an old Friday night favourite makes a comeback, then sleep.

I just came across this article in GP. It must have been quite strange to be half asleep on a morning bike commute. The last thing you would expect is a hejarklack.

This idea is brilliant if you ask me. Can we get them to come to our CX race in November? Can they follow Mölndals CK to every race in CX Cupen? If we can't be fastest, we can at least be the loudest and most creative...

Since writing about my calf the other day, I have received an email to review an article for the International Journal of Livestock Production. Huh? I know nothing about baby cows. I wrote that I had a cramp in my calf muscle. Sometimes I wonder how google searching works. Especially considering that the phrase 'Belgian cyclist cock' led at least 4 people to visit this site. Double huh???

Good news is that my calf muscle is feeling just fine now after a bit of rest. So I am ready for CX racing premiere. Vi ses där!

In 2008 I was living in Uppsala and suffering from a lack of decent MTB training. After trashing my Trek in the first ever Hammarby Hill XC, I was ready for a change. Completely by accident I found a page on CX and I thought that it sounded really fun. It didn't take long before I found out about CX-Cupen.

I was already considering a LVG so at CykelCity Stockholm and purely by impulse, I bought the Merida I still use now. My first couple rides I was terrified because I had never ridden a LVG-style bike. But the more I tried grusvägar or simpler trails, the more I realized that this was a brilliant style of bike. I was hooked.

Within 2 weeks I entered my first ever CX race arranged by AC Tierp. So in my MTB Täby jersey I made history by coming 3rd place in Sportklass! I even lapped 2 people!

Then came Bosön in Stockholm which was my first experience with real CX. I did absolutely horrible and felt like I would die in that grass, the stairs and the pretty nasty downhill, not to mention the sand. But watching the other classes was wonderful. So much excitement! The day after in Södertälje I managed 4th and regained my love for CX.

Next it was off to Dalarna which is where I first met people from Mölndals CK. Since I was moving to Göteborg soon, it was clear that I needed a new club. So I chose MCK based solely on their organization of CX races. Falun was covered in about half a metre of snow and I had no control over my bike at all but I managed the race anyway. If I had had one more lap I would have passed someone too. And the day after in Borlänge was another highlight for me. There I learned that brakes do not work after being in snow and also won a nice set of tires.

Finally after finding a temporary apartment in Borås, I moved so that I would arrive in time for MCKs SM weekend at Skatås. I raced both days for the first time in my MCK jersey. It was wet, muddy and horribly difficult but I loved it anyway.

And 2009 you already know about from this blog...

Sorry for the silly Göteborgshumör this early. But Chris Cross felt like quite the gubbe last night after training. Everything hurt.

So what do I feel like this morning? You guessed it...my left calf muscle in semi-sore. So jävla typisk is what one could say. But it could just be träningsvärk so I am still positive. But it would massively suck if I was injured just when the season starts.

Turnout was great tonight for CX training #4 - Hondacrossen. But Sven...where were you??? Björn had cleared out a bit around the rocks so it was much safer today yet somehow so much worse. For me, this was Crapacross.

I wanted to push myself harder than Saturday but I just couldn't bridge the 20-30m gap between me and the next group. I dared to take a harder gear than normal but it just felt slow all night.

The small downhill towards the road provided an extra bit of 'entertainment' because the mud part was even deeper and more wet than the weekend. I just hit it at a fairly good speed and just stopped. But after that initial part I could ride on through the rest. So then I tried to hit it at more speed which made a huge splash sending mud straight into my face. Was my mouth open? Of course. Crapacross.

Finally it was time for jaktstart with the slowest first and things were going just fine until the dismount to jump the small plank. When I jumped back on my left calf muscle just froze in a nasty little cramp. After that I had to calm down and change back a few gears. All this is a sign of how poorly trained I am for CX. Crapacross.

After sitting out and stretching, I took one final lap because it felt bad to end with a cramp. By taking it easy on the first part I was able to push through the tough sections at a fine pace. This is all about planning. I can do that.

In other news, I spent the rest of tonight cleaning my bike. I have never seen it this dirty. And it looks like my tubdäck are finally falling off.

It is sunny and beautiful out right now which should mean that Hondacrossen tonight is boring. But honestly a little sun would be nice while it is here.

This afternoon I have been giddy as a schoolgirl as the expression goes. CX training and the first race on Saturday. How can you not be psyched???

Car loading time...

It's raining so I am not that motivated to leave work just yet. Like I said before, it looks like I will be in Odense exactly when they have their CX race so obviously I should enter just for fun.

We all know that cross is fun but after Saturdays training I remember that cross can also be painful as hell. So the race in Tidan this weekend plus Odense next week will be good preparation for CX Cupens premier in Falun.

Falun always gets me and I have said several times that if I actually have a successful race in Falun I will retire. One could say that SM Marathon last year in Bjursås (sort of Falun) went well but my CX experience two years ago in the snow was a disaster. Although it was the most fun I have ever had on my bike. Half a metre of soft snow is wonderful...

I do not normally get into politics but since other cykelbloggare are onto this topic, I can't help but jump in as well. But knowing that over 450000 people in this country just voted for Sverigedemokraterna does not really give me anything positive to write. Should I start packing now or am I the 'right' kind of immigrant? I can vote in the local election but not the national one which meant that I was met with confused looks yesterday when I voted. 'But he is white and is wearing a Fjällräven jacket. Why can't he vote?' This happens to me all the time.

Obviously some people have this illusion that it is easy to come to Sweden and live off the system but that is far from true. Sweden has never been as open as everyone thinks. Every year I pay 1000kr for Migrationsverket to completely search my records and identity just to decide whether I can live here for one more year. It is degrading to say the least. And I have no status, will never be Swedish and have no right to collect A-kassa or any other bidrag.

Sometimes I wonder why I am here at all. The answer is that I like the nature and design plus the fact that so many people are active here. Having motionspår everywhere is a real luxury for a Canadian that grew up in a suburb with no sidewalks. But honestly I would be paid more, have a more secure position and a better place to live if I moved somewhere else.

When the bike is this muddy, there is no choice. Tvättacrossen for me. Which sucks because my bathroom was nice and clean but now it will be covered in mud and grass. Apartment living sucks sometimes. So while election things are on TV tonight, I can clean.

Somehow it took much less time to drive to this training so I was like 30 minutes early. But that gave me plenty of time to adjust the brakes and get everything in order. Björn found a new track in the grassy fields behind Honda and K-Rauta which looked a lot like my find here in Sävedalen...except this was much longer.

Our test lap was just hell in the sucking wet grass and we were discovering giant holes and other objects all over the place. Yes...pungcrossen had begun both physically an mentally.

The next two laps felt a lot better once I was warm and some parts I could really accelerate well. Other parts were a disaster. This one stretch of deep mud just stopped me completely while another little hill made my wheels spin. I know that 2.8 was too much air but by some miracle my tires stayed on despite the constant flooding of wet grass and water. So the extra pressure meant that I could finish training.

As usual I had unlimited endurance but my speed was quite crap. It helped to be just ahead or behind someone but on my own was just pure torture for the legs. But with a 45 min + 2 laps race next week, I needed all the training I can get.

Tuesday the training will be there again with meeting at SCA parkering. So then we can try and draft a few MTB riders to CX. Tomas...we know you want to ride cross...

Drop family off at the airport? Check!
Eat? Check!
Fix an extra set of wheels for when my tubdäck fall off? Check!
Write pre-training blog entry? Check!
Truly rainy CX weather? Check!
Pack the car and drive to training...nope, but I am on the way.

Check our MCK forum here for details on our CX training tomorrow. Maybe Kanskecrossen is the same as Introcrossen. Maybe not. Soon we will know.

See you tomorrow (Saturday) kl 10 at SCA parkering in Eklanda/Mölndal. I need to drop off my family at Landvetter first but I should be on time.

Finally my headset press arrived. As you know, pressing the cups has been causing me problems and most of this is due to the angle of the tube. I could never hold it straight. So I bought the press from Park Tools and it worked beautifully. Well, sort of. Since the angle was a lot, the tool kept hitting the top tube every rotation so I had to try and bend it over. But now it is sitting perfect.

Things should go more smoothly now.

After checking the MCK forum this morning it seems like I missed a great practice last night. =( I have spent the last 2 days endurance training, sort of. Showing my family around has meant 8-10 hours of walking each of the last 2 days which does not give träningsvärk but leaves you pretty dead anyway. Not to mention my rock-hard futon from IKEA which is killing me. But today I get to sit on my ass all day in a course and recover before the last 2 days of their visit and some more walking.

I am hoping that Kanskecrossen appears this weekend. I am ready and willing now...

I should know better than to believe the prices in advertising. Just like apartment/house prices, car prices are way higher in reality. My enthusiasm for the new Audi A1 has dropped after a check on Bytbil.com to see that the automatic with the 'slightly bigger engine' (122 hp) is a crazy 260000kr! The starting price was 160000kr in the newspaper. They must be kidding for a car less than 4m long. For the same money I could get a Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart with a truly massive engine.

I am all for good design but this whole VW-family is crazy. The VW Polo, Skoda Fabia, Seat Ibiza and Audi A1 are essentially the same car. And with a price of 150000kr, the Seat makes the most sense. Even if the interior is quite uninspired and plastic.

Right, now I get to continue being a tourguide. Perfect cross weather is not really so perfect to take my family on a walking tour.

My first complaint is that my IKEA guest 'bed' is about as soft as my parking spot so I get to spend the first half hour of each day rather paralyzed. But that is no excuse.

Anyway, I will not make tomorrow's CX training because of scheduling problems. My mom and sister do not know their way around yet and I really don't see them that often so it feels a bit bad to leave them and head off for training. So instead I will tjuvtränar in the mornings while they shower and stuff. But maybe next weekend we can have some CX training? Any volunteers?

Today I expect an SMS from Posten about a long-awaited package too...

Finally it is here! The new Audi A1! Please send me one in red right now...preferably the automatic. Let's not worry about the fact that I may be unemployed soon. Oh, and my Colt will not really cover the 10% downpayment either. But send me one anyway...

Overseas visitors tend to fall asleep on their first day here so I was able to slip out for a run and not look like a bad host. Of course by then it was raining so this became a less pleasurable experience right away.

I headed through the forest (VERY muddy) to the cykelväg that goes up to Björndammen and that was enough to fog up my glasses and get sweat dripping in my eyes. From there it is up to the start of the running trail at Furulund and then directly up again in a massive festival of nasty hills. It was only when I reached the top that my body could concentrate on functioning. This hurt. But this was my trail of choice all winter and the one that kept me in great shape.

53 minutes of running is good training for 53 minutes of cross. Especially in rain and mud.

I have visitors arriving today so any of my leftover time this week has been spent with things like my dammsugare. And I will admit that this place looks pretty nice now. Except for the corner where I am building the cross...that will stay a mess until it is built.

I also had a search for my wheels and the old red Tufos and they could use a clean also. So much for my clean floor. Maybe someone should run after us with dammsugare to get rid of all that sand. Yes...dammsugarecrossen. Good for those of us with apartments and no good place to keep our bikes.

It turns out that I actually have to go to Odense on business in the next couple of weeks so after some persuasion from my cycle-loving colleagues, it seems I will be racing Biotex SuperCross løb on 3 oct.

To perhaps inspire someone at SCF, you can see the DCU online signup page here and you can read more about the premier race in the Danish CX season. I will have to do Elite C class and the race time is 60 min. Fan. But on the good side, this will cost me only 60DKK.

The status of my parts order is 'plockas' now so I should have the missing pieces on Monday and by Tuesday I will know whether to drop it off with an expert instead of building it myself.

As you already know, this year's CX Cupen will be longer with races almost every weekend. But if you are still wondering what to do on those empty weekends, why not check the CX Calendar for Denmark.

For example, on 3 October you can try Indian Summer Cross in Odense. Or if you think it is a shame to only have one race in Jönköping v46, why not try CPH CycloCross Grand Prix on 21 November?

No one can complain about too few CX races this season.

First there was Cross Karlsson and last year Cross Lasse appeared. But then something strange happened. I started noticing a lot of referrals from bjornfredriksson.se and what did I find there? I have become Chris Cross!!! And that sounds much better than Cross Chris.

Yes, Björn has a great imagination for names. Kanskecross? Pungcrossen? It's just great! Anyway, now I am psyched an impatient waiting for the last parts for my Ridley. Not to mention the superspecial new MCK cross tempodräkt.

With twice as many people as last week, you could tell that tonight's training was going to be a good one. One can definitely see cross withdrawal in many. I was still riding with my old bike and the worn out clincher tires and certain people were trying to psyche me out with their tubdäck. So it looks like I will have to bring out the old red Tufos for next week. Then I am going to fly.

I still need a lot of practice with jumping on the bike and despite loads of practice tonight, it is still not going well. Another exercise was cornering in grass and we were not allowed to use brakes which was fine because I don't normally brake in grass corners unless they are wet. I hardly used my brakes at all tonight.

Then it was time for a 2-lap race again and Sven was on my tail for the whole first lap and did very well on the hill. He was always there so I had to push harder but he would catch up at the gravel corners where I had no grip. But the 2nd time up the hill was where I could win. Finally my hill training comes in handy. Still, my lead was not enough to be all that comfortable...

After I did another 5 rounds of the full lap and everything felt great. I could go on forever at that pace which probably means I was not going fast enough.

20C and sunny...all I have been thinking this afternoon is how crap this is for CX. But now it is cloudy and a bit cooler which is a step in the right direction. Training CX when it is not wet or cold is hardly preparing us for CX Cupen later this fall. Let's hope for less bugs tonight anyway...

Here we have a picture of me from last Tuesday and you can see the rest on Björn Fredriksson's blog here. My question is are my legs really as white as my frame? Was my sunscreen THAT strong this summer? Maybe I should just start with the leg warmers directly...

Anyway, tonight sounds like a night of falling for me. Jumping on and off the bike from both directions is always my weakness. The running part should go well though. Welcome kl 18 Slottsskogsvallen!

This is a weekend where it feels like I am just eating and that's about it. Like carbo laddning but with less carbs and powder drinks and more beef and beer. I suppose I will be ready for Tuesday with this much energy in me. I would also be ready for an MTB marathon.

I thought it was best to go out this morning since I will not really have any time for training this weekend. So I probably just took my last MTB pass of the year. At least it seems like that. This was just a quick trip around the Furulund trails and then over to Jonsered on the bike path but no hills...just lugnt och fint today.

Lycka till to everyone doing Bockstensturen tomorrow. The weather looks perfect for it. But now I am focused on CX...

This entry has nothing to do with cycling or other training. I just wanted to say how f%&#*ng itchy my legs are right now after last night's mosquito pass. I remember now why I usually train during mornings.