Today was the start of Introcross with the all important träningstävling. Those of you reading this last year know just what a big deal these races became. But this year I would not say that it is the same yet, probably because there are so many CX Cupen races so the thought of a race every weekend until Christmas is a bit much. But CX is life for me so let's race.

I rode today with 2.5 bar in my tires and that felt perfect most times. It was pretty dry but still the grass had some water leftover for wheel sucking. We practiced starts around a goal post and it was fun to see that glidtackling work well in cycling too.

The race was supposed to be 30 min but CC Lasse's course was a good one so we covered all the usual CX things and didn't have much time for resting. At the start and for the first 100m my body was not really convinced that this was a race. But it was not my worst start because I was able to pass Ted just after the sand. Passing Ted is getting harder and harder. The field was not so spread out and I kept fairly close to Per in the grass sections. But the drop through the mud and then the road bit were enough for him to leave me way behind. Of course I had one of those Merida slides coming off the gravel from 8:an and this understeering is the main reason I wanted a Ridley.

Anyway, I was on my own and when this happens I get tempted to just relax and take it easy. But I could still see the group in front of me so I tried to keep at it. The group was quite spread out at this point but I could see Mattias was closest in front of me but pretty far for me to make any attack. I could also see Tomas and co approaching behind me which was a good thing. With 2 laps to go I gave it everything I had just to avoid being lapped. Taking the sand with speed was a good idea. The grass hurt but even the mud hole went more smoothly with less braking and more pedalling. So by the time I had made it to the slalom part at the start area and then the running hill, it was clear that no one would lap me. Success!

With one lap to go I just decided to keep up the speed for the training value and it was good. I had maybe gained a little bit on Mattias but certainly not enough to pass. But I am satisfied with my performance today.