Well, this is the week I make my tävlingspremiär with my first race in HSport in Kvänum on Wednesday and then it is time for 60km of fun for Dalsland X-Country on Saturday. The first race is mostly just to get some kind of feel for XC and I can only race in HSport with baslicens so it will be the easier course. Good good.

To prepare for DXC I decided for a longer trip today with more typical långlopp things like grusväg and a pile of hills with a few rideable singletrack along the way. And my 47km of pure hell was certainly the best option for this. Ouch. Today was a combination of two of my usual routes from last summer and it had 10 proper nasty hills. I only remember a couple of nasty hills in DXC so this was overkill.

I went over to Jonsered and then up into the part with what is currently the best trail I have been on this year. I thought it would be muddy but it was superb! This cuts over to those logging 'roads' above Aspen which go back and forth essentially up and down the same hill. And those downhills are still full of large rocks and scary as hell. So after that adventure you end up right down at the shore of Aspen and can ride around the waterfront walk and enjoy the sun before ending up at the road back to Partille where all the LVG people are. Actually that is the worst road to choose because if you turn left just after Aspen station and head up a true monster of a hill you end up at a perfect idyllic little road that ends up at the top of the hill above Jonseredkyrka, another fine hill.

From there I went up to Knipavägen which was a bitch of a wet sandy grusväg that had my legs burning quickly. I missed a turn and ended up all the way at the end and then turned back to check another traktorväg which was actually shite and I won't be doing that one again. But that got me back up to Tahult in Landvetter for yet another massive hill back up to Kåsjön. Then I ended with a nice little downhill back to home. So this was basically a whole långlopp on one serving of sportgryn, 750ml of water and a 100g Maxim gel. Imagine how much better it will be when I prepare properly...

As you can see I haven't exactly been ending every training pass with a blog entry and that is probably a good thing because they are mostly the same. Since picking up my Allebike Ipsum 26 I have been adjusting and perfecting what I now see is an absolute masterpiece of a bike! My first full carbon frame works just perfect with Sid and it is actually front heavy which keeps the wheel on the ground going uphill. I am just flying up the Kåsjön hill and I have about 7 easy gears I haven't even needed yet. A slightly smaller frame is precisely what I needed to regain confidence in the technical parts of the forest and I have already tried trails I would never have dared on my old bike. More on that later...

This is the 3rd weekend in a row now where I have had a tough and quite mixed pass on both days. And I should be able to add in a Tuesday training with GCK or the Göteborgsserien races which start up soon also. Dalsland X-Country is two weeks away so I am doing what I can to get in some kind of form.

The terrain is pretty muddy now and I was looking into the course for GöteborgsGirot MTB. I wasn't entirely thrilled to mind my lovely Puketorp trail there and today it was certainly full of tire tracks from the 100 cyclists that tested the track last weekend. I had already been out on Saturday so I didn't feel like it Sunday also. I like the idea of a race in my backyard and I am giving it a chance. But after the grusväg that heads south towards the golfcourse the trail heads off towards Ugglemossen which is a serious mess. The mud today was horrible and even without mud this is a tough trail. And I think it is brave of me to even try this trail with a 26" hardtail, tires from last year that are worn out, a shorter travel length on Sid and tires that are only 2.2" wide. The last part means I can't ride on any of the wooden bridge sections which I personally think are wrong for a race. In fact I thought I was on the wrong trail because it is marked with IFK colours and GAIS is behind this race.

GöteborgsGirot will be a long XC race, not a marathon. That distinction has to be clear. From what I have seen there will be many people walking and it will be wet and frustrating. Which is fine if you like XC. But this is no motionslopp in any way. If they want something more like a marathon they should be up in the Partille/Landvetter forest part and over into Lerum if needed. No cars...no problems. So as much as I would really like to support this race I am going to have to choose Billingeracet the day before up in Skövde which, actually, is cheaper and 75km instead. That race has some great trails that are in fact possible. And I bought this particular bike just so I could race on a course like Billingen or Mörksuggan.

Well sometimes it pays to just send an email and ask a question. Because I have been wondering whether I should risk svarttävling fines and all that kind of thing. So I emailed those at Dalsland X-Country to ask if they were purposely running this without SCF-sanctions because it would scare away all the Elite riders.

The answer was not surprising. Föreningen DalslandsTurism is, in fact, a member of SCF and they had started the process of getting the race approved but it got stuck along the way. Which I am not at all surprised about now that I have inside info on how things work in this lovely organization. So anyway after a few days the deal was done and now Dalsland X-Country is in SCF's calendar and officially approved. It was always seedningslopp for Grenserittet and now even for CykelVasan. So there is no excuses...4 maj it is time to visit Bengtsfors again!

I have actually sent one of these emails before the first year Hammarby Hill XC was run. It was the same answer then. And from my experience now at Göteborgs Cykelförbund there is a real problem with communication between the clubs and SCF. Actually even the local clubs in Göteborg completely ignore when GCF sends emails. We are trying here. And we are not spending 250000kr on a website either. So just because the CF part is the same we don't have to act like SCF. Give us a bit of a chance to help. We are certainly not standing in the way of the process. Changes are happening at www.göteborgcykel.se

And so it was finally time. On Wednesday I was up at Allebike to pick up my new frame because I had problems with getting Sid on properly and was too lazy to deal with gear adjustments. And so also Wednesday was the big premiere ride of my lovely carbon Ipsum frame.

It is a 26er (if that is a term) because I wanted to go back to basics after the problems with my last frame and the size. I need a smaller frame in order to have confidence technically in the forest. I have never been one to just ride over everything so I need a bike that responds quickly when I steer and flies when I make my attacks on hills. And I have been told that this same frame will work fine for 650b/27.5er wheels so I can work with it if I need to.

Of course I know I should be covering this post with pictures but that time will come soon. The first ride felt like most first MTB rides of the year...extremely jobbigt. This is also because I need to make fine adjustments to the seat height and everything but it is clear that my body is more adapted to my CX at the moment.

I was up on my favourite trail in Puketorp which was unusually dry but just as fun and challenging. Things are looking very good so far. On the old bike it was Sid and the front end that was light so there was always a risk for spectacular crashes from lifting too much. But now it is actually Sid that is heavy and the back end is light...completely different feeling and stability.

2013 will be a fast year my friends...