While you are warming up the bredband waiting for that other Superprestige, why not read about today's Introcross and Göteborgs Superprestige. It was nice to see some new faces but quite a few others were missing. I hope that my post did not discourage anyone. I was just pointing out how cold it was. And tomorrow in GP you will probably be able to read skiers complaining about reckless and crazy cyclists...that was us. =)

I did take my Ridley and for the hundreds of you visiting this page via searches for Ridley X-Ride I can add this little review...it is fantastic in the snow! So much more stable than my MTB in fact. Today's warmup was to ride through the deepest part (15cm) and see how far we could go. It was like sand yet somehow I could make it through this with some skillful steering and solid pedalling. The two with MTBs certainly had trouble there. But still my smygträning in snow has paid off a bit.

The lap for the big race was a bit shorter but Lasse added a part where we had to climb over 5 little sand hills and then run through the sand...seriously fun. While we were preparing for this, Karlsson provided some entertainment while practicing falling in snow corners.

My start was fine and the two on the MTB were behind me and Patrik was just in front. Everyone was taking it a bit easy on the first lap since there were no real grooves to drive in but I was having no trouble with grip yet. I caught up in the long grusväg part and had a fairly comfortable gap back but it was growing in front of me. The part around the field was not really working for me and I was sliding so my speed was lost. I saw Patrik pass Mattias who had some chain trouble but after that sand section they really took off.

Lap 2 was pretty much the same and I could see that he was gaining in that part around the field and the trail/hill after the sand but I could open up the gap in any of the technical parts. By Lap 3 I was pretty tired and he was basically på rulle by the end so I calmed down a bit to save some energy for the spurt. He didn't try to pass on the long grusväg section and not at the löphinder either since there were a few corners. He didn't even try on my weakest part around the field and I was really sliding since I was stressed. Over the hills and sand and I was a bit ahead so that he didn't try and pass on the hill. I was doing well this time. But in the last straight section he made his move and I tried to answer but he had about 10m on me by the time the snow/grass started. I kept up well but a slight slip meant I was just a bit far away to answer.

Nope, no little win for Chris Cross but this is still the most fun I have had on this bike. In a normal situation that guy on the MTB would have been way ahead of me but my CX experience meant that I could stay in the race. But I really need to work on the general speed. TC is probably the only answer...