Well, the good news is that I can continue cycling because once again I did not manage to have a perfect race in Falun. But it wasn't my worst performance here so I am making some progress. Somehow I was given Startled 3 which means there were a lot of people behind me so in the start I was not instantly last. I was still in it by the end of the hill up to the pit but when I took the curve too wide I did end up last down out of the stadium area. Things became close again in the grass curvy part and I passed the guy from Ludvika right away this time and went after the next group that was still within reach by segbacken. That part was fine but my cautious descent in the muddy bottom part of Mördarbacken meant they could take off quite a bit. I was still battling down towards the sand and someone from CK Master missed on one of the fun little springbacke slalom things so I could pass and continue quite well.

Around this point the women had caught up and I guess I could have focused on my own race but I decided to be a gentleman and give Åsa lots of room in the start corner and then also let Angelica pass easily in another grass corner. It was a tough day for many because somewhere here Tomas went flying passed and then his bike fell apart. And there was someone lying in the muddy hill the first time I passed. But I was surprised when Lisa passed me on this same hill by taking the left line. You can't get any tougher than this. Get hit by a bus one week and jump on a cross soon after. Respect.

But I think I also deserve a bit of respect at this point because I was fast approaching someone from Borlänge. I was doing extremely well on the long straights and before I knew it I passed him. But he stayed with me for a bit until segbacken when I opened up a pretty nice lead. Excellent. So my confidence was massive and I was flying along the last straight out of the stadium and up to the grass. The first corner went fine but the next right didn't. Boom. Slipped and went crashing down on my right side. My first feeling was 'Holy fcuk what is under that grass...it is jävla hård assoshit'. And that feeling stayed as I cautiously went through the rest of the corners which, naturally, meant I was passed by the guy. I knew it was 2 laps to go and I tried to not fall apart completely. In the back of my mind I was wondering why no one had lapped me yet so perhaps that would happen soon. But after getting up segbacken and down muddy hill I was ignoring the pain and made a pretty good second half of the lap.

This is when I realized that for the first time in CX Cupen history I would not be lapped. In fact, I had at least 3 full straights to spare. Wow! That has to be a worthy goal. So to celebrate actually managing to do every lap of the race I decided to make the last one a good one. After a bit cautiously taking the grass corners I could see that the guy from Borlänge was having a tough time on segbacken. So by making an insane attack I could actually get within a possible distance of him. I tried to not lose so much time on the muddy hill and the downhill after but by the sand it was looking like the distance was too far. Still, I had to make a final sprint anyway just for my own sake. It was a beauty.

So what did I think about my Tufo Flexus Cubus? Well, the bike did feel lighter but I can't say the corner grip was any better that the Conti CycloXKings. Maybe it will take some time to wear them in a bit. But probably my pressure is still too high. I am sure I have written about pressure here before so maybe I was using less even with the tape. Either way, 2.7 bar was not right. Tomorrow I will try less.

Overall I was surprised that I enjoyed the track today. On the map it looks pretty boring with all those long straights. But what was between those was pretty fun and it seems like I needed the long straights.

Today's performance left me in 42nd place, ahead of two people who were lapped and then at least 3 DNFs. And I know that many people took pictures of me today so hopefully I can put them up here later.