Today it was time for another trip to Dalsland for some proper MTB. Karolinertrampet is a 30km around Kroppefjäll which should be the first clue that 30km would probably be tougher than it seems. But for 100kr and that even included lunch at the Kroppefjäll hotel so you can't lose with this concept.

I placed myself in the second start row because if I had the power to keep up with the leaders this would obviously be the best place to start from. And my start was excellent and I was wondering why half the pack was not passing me. Maybe I went out just a wee bit too hard. The thing was my body was not at all responding because it was over 20C and the oak pollen is at its peak and that is what kills me. But I kept a good pace and realized that the course had a lot of singletrack in the first bit and I was doing some wild and rapid dodging and direction changes. I knew some people were following behind too close (duh, this is not LVG) so my changes meant people were hitting things I was missing. But they never did want to pass.

The first 3km was trail and it was possible to ride so it was fine. I just took it quite slowly the other two laps. The middle section had some nice grus and double track and I felt like I had a pretty good pace. I was being too cautious in the downhills which were super fun with all their banked turns and perfect dirt. Cykelglädje time. The last half of the lap was easier technically except for a couple mud bits but it did have some nasty uphills. The first major one went fine but on my way downhill my water bottle fell off so I had to stop and get it. That cost me a few positions but there were others around to race, including some guy in a full-body cross country skiing outfit. In light blue.

Lap two was mostly just trying to concentrate and not make any mistakes and that was going fairly well. The one I was following did manage to lose me after I dismounted for a hill which I didn't even have to dismount for. But on the first lap everyone did. And of course every time I passed the start the speaker was saying some thing about Göteborg but I was too busy flying passed entertaining the kids. They had water and saft there but both times I didn't stop because I had my bottle and enough liquids/gels for a much longer race. Perhaps I should have used the gel. Not doing so made the last lap interesting...

Again I took it easy through the singletrack parts and could feel someone right behind me yet again. Despite lots of chances to pass he never did. There were two not far in front of me so on the grusväg part when they both started taking it easy I made my attack and broke up what was a fairly long string of maybe 5 guys. Two stayed with me and when things started uphill they took off and I was saying hello to Mr. Wall. For the rest of the race I was on my own but I did not want to fall apart so despite about 4km of zero energy and two of the biggest hills I kept on and sprinted across the line. For the second race of the season I have felt a fainting spell near and I was absolutely done.

So, a quick look at the Results shows that in my premiere for Göteborgs CK I came in with a time of 1:46:03 which is almost 17 km/h and well under my goal of 2 hours. And that, my friends, was good for place 31 out of 56 which is far from last place. Maybe I am actually improving afterall.

This was a fun race and a real test for your training effect. The singletrack was pretty typical långlopp style but the hills between made it more of a challenge and also really beautiful. So try it next year...you will like it!