And so it was time for Day 2 of torturing my body and covering myself in mud...gotta love it! The twist with today's course was the reversed direction in the park section which I have to say was WAY more fun. And of course the obstacle was the Stairway to hell/Bridge of death. It did look this bad and the hairpin turn at the bottom of the hill meant a whole lot of braking. How nice that I discovered just before start that my front brakes were basically gone.

My less than superb finish yesterday meant I was still starting last and the women started after so I really was last down the start straight. Again it was a story of me and around 4 guys and things were quite close together at first through the even muddier grass section and through the windy bit. I passed the guy from Ludvika in the wind because there was space and I put a good gap in up until my favourite little start hill bit. Speaker Oskar even told the crowd I had fine technique at this point. But those in front of me were gone now and I was on my own. It was around here that Åsa and Angelica passed and it looked like they were having a serious battle.

First time down the Bridge of death went okay except that I had the wrong foot clipped in and made a pretty nice slide in the corner at the bottom but it was fine. Somewhere in this lap there was a guy stopped so I passed him but he passed me again later on. Then I could see Lars ahead of me at a reasonable distance so I pushed on and tried to close the gap. That was going perfectly until the next time I took on the Bridge of death. My pedal hit the bridge and I didn't have either foot clipped in and when I started to pedal at the bottom is was going way too easy. Fan. Chain is off. I had this happen in Sthlm and just like then I could not get the chain passed the silly plastic thing I have to prevent the chain from falling off. Yep, fcukload of good that did. I lost an eternity but finally it was back on and I could power away through the sand.

By the time I was over to the muddy grass I saw the guy from Ludvika again so apparently I had built up a good lead before. But he had to be passed again and I did that and took off yet again knowing full well I could mess up again. This lap was great and nothing major happened but I had lost time so it was time to be lapped now. They held a '2 laps' sign for me but I knew I would be passed quickly and I could see that the Gbg clubs were 2nd-4th at that point. I considered closing the gap after that but there was no gap to close since people were flying passed. But just when I was going down the hill into the sand part I heard 'Hup!' and had to look quick to see skier Adam Steen flying passed on my left. This led me down the wrong line and into the right side of the sand which was almost enough to send me flying. A 'vänster' would have been more helpful.

Anyway, that was it and I ended up 2nd last of those that finished but with more starting today I get even less points. Still, this was a fun day and considering I did not expect to do well at all in Kumla I have to say this weekend has been beyond expectations. But now I have to calm down and prepare for a week of meetings and other non-CX things...