Somehow today was not raining although it was every other day this week. So when I arrived at Slottsskogsvallen for the next GöteborgsSuperprestige battle I knew this would be a tough day for me. Of course the track would include the steep drop before the stairs. And of course it would have all those muddy corners which killed my confidence back when we had started training here a couple months ago.

We can skip over the intro part of Introcross since so much happened in the 4-lap race. I started in the 2nd group and had planned to follow Laila who was directly in front of me and then make a quick pass before the sharp corner. That strategy worked very well and after a perfect start Cecilia from Uddevalla was first, Laila second and me third at the corner and all down the allén part. I passed Laila somewhere here and entered the forest part for the first time and was already sliding all over. One of us fell already here and I know that my first time down the drop I could not turn at the bottom and ended up way off the track. People were starting to pass at this point but I was holding position quite well here. Then I missed in the second downhill and almost hit the statue. For those of you there you will certainly remember that the statue was nowhere near the track...

So now I was losing positions and Mike had flown passed but took a nasty fall on the left turn on the way into the grusplan. Over at the löphinder, which became a bunny hop because it was just a log, I made it up fine but slipped and fell in the corner and somehow I had managed to stick out my arm towards someone who was passing. I actually had my little finger wrapped around the spoke of his wheel and was lucky that I didn't lose a finger. Still, the pain was massive and I was slow for a few minutes after that...long enough to get back over to the forest again for Lap 2.

I fell quite a bit earlier this time in the slippery right turn but was back on the bike quick. The drop was fine this time although I was sliding everywhere. But I seem to remember falling somewhere up on the top part. To be honest I lost track of all the falls. I know I did better on the downhill this time but was still taking the 'statue line' way off the track. By Lap 3 I remembered that this was still a race and started to look around. I seemed to be leading a group of 3 of which the first passed on one of my mistakes. There was an MTB approaching (or UFO as CC Lasse calls them) and he was right behind me at the forest part and obviously had way more grip so he passed. I tried to do one of those cool CX tricks and ran down the drop and carried the bike and that kept me just behind the MTB. I  knew I could pass again after the forest if I could stay on my bike. Nej. Not today. I took the right line on the second downhill and managed for once to stay on the track but in the banked corner at the bottom I fell yet again and MTB was gone.

Three were close behind so I knew I needed to build up a gap in the fast grus parts. That I did quite well and by the time I was back to the forest I could be careful and concentrate. This was good. Finally I managed to stay on the bike for the whole first part and things were great until the second downhill again. I took the right line and made the banked turn but fell just after that anyway. Only I could manage a feat like this. I was pissed off now. So you can imagine I was even more pleased when I jumped on the bike and discovered my chain was off. Fan.

Someone passed me here. And Cecilia had apparently just went straight into the tree on the downhill and was later on the way to the hospital. And once I was on the bike and down on the grusplan I could here Laila shouting something like 'I am catching up!'. And she was. So I was keen on getting a lead again but obviously when in the last corner I could see Laila basically beside me, that was not going well either. The finish area was full so I had to actually go to the right side of the clock to avoid hitting people. This confusion meant that I just managed to beat Laila. But probably she would have won if we had had the space.

This was only the first race. And my confidence was zero so I decided to skita i the second race. Things would not have gotten better. So now I have managed to open up the sore on my leg from last week and add another couple next to it. But my finger is the problem. It is not broken but it feels like it has been pulled to the side and there is a constant dull pain. So that makes the '4 weeks 4 countries' decision easy. This may be the end of the season for Chris Cross.

To end this massive post I have to say that the Tufo mud tires are complete shite! Even if I still haven't found the right tire pressure they should not be this bad. Seriously. And the main design flaw was obvious after a few minutes in the grass/mud. The mud sticks to the side walls of the tires and is never cleared. So even if I had grip in the corners the mud stuck to the tires would have killed that anyway. This is something the Conti CycloXKings are great for. The mud clears directly so you always have grip. So no one should be surprised if I show up with clinchers again...