As you can see I am a bit behind with my reporting but now you can get a double report in one day. It is MTB långlopp season and I chose to stay in Eksjö rather than panic-drive on the race morning. And as soon as I arrived the rain poured down, I mean seriously pouring. Lovely. This in combination with not getting any sleep due to the noise of the Eksjö nightlife scene, which apparently was more than a couple drunk guys on a scooter, meant I was not at all positive to my start. I have mentioned many times before that this is my bad luck race and I have only managed to start it once, the rest was riddled with injuries or car trouble. So my plan was simple...just see this as a nice little training pass in singletrack. Afterall half of these 78km were singletrack.

Last time I went out way too hard and was ready to die after the second loop heading north. But my start may have been a slight bit relaxed since I was dead last in the competition group immediately.
Something which I realized shortly after this picture was taken. I looked back and said 'WTF???' and wondered where the motionär were.

But I got better after that and kept a fairly steady pace with those around me during the first grusväg sections. I was not surpassing my ability which was something I appreaciated later. The problem was that there was so much of a delay between the starts that the motion group caught up to me just when the singletracks were starting. These were not too serious trails but still the leaders in that class are not the least bit kind and they want passed immediately. Honestly what is the point of this class anyway because they are just as fast as the competition class. I suggest a change...why not charge motion cyclists more than people supporting the sport.

Anyway, the rest of the first loop (section 2) and most of second loop (section 3) I was being constantly passed by literally hundreds of cyclists. Section 3 is the toughest part of the race and I was doing just fine on the singletracks but I was getting frustrated with all those trying to pass. At the times I could be on my own my technique was fine and a reasonable pace. So my training pass was going just fine so far.
One of those motionär types that passed me.
But here I still look like I am enjoying my training pass even though I am blurry.

So then it was time for section 4 and the Eksjö training track which is fun but it was here I started to feel a bit tired. It was after this part last time where I suddenly woke up and started flying along. But this time it was not quite the same case because it was wet and I kept having this feeling that the worst part was coming next.

Everyone had been talking about the skidstuga which is section 5 and I had this faint memory of it being really horrible. And apparently last year when it was really wet this was basically a walking section. I didn't see any problem with it at all. Sure, the grass hills were wet but I had just changed to a brand new set of Conti X-Kings so I had tons of grip everywhere despite the mud. And I think this was what made my day.

So then, as you know, it was time for my final 'all-in' method which it a common part of all my race reports. Because in section 5 among all those grass hills things changed and my uphill skill could finally come to use and I could start passing people. Section 6 is pretty technical but I was on my own and trying pretty hard at this point to go fast on the trails. I knew I was over my normal level and that this wasn't a training pass anymore but I also know that I was swearing a lot when I did make mistakes.

I had already been in some type of mini-sprint for the last 2km and through that little grassy part just behind the water tower. So once I did get up the last little hill to the finish area I kept at it and accelerated more even though no one was around me at all and no one was watching or cheering. I have to sprint into the finish line and fall over. If I don't the training pass would be a waste.

But to my surprise this took 4:25:05 which doesn't say so much until I compared to my old time and realized I crushed it by 26 minutes! What I thought of as a training pass was almost half an hour faster than my old time which, really was okay too. So this was good for 425th out of 584 which is still kind of low but was far from last.

Finally some improvement. On a 26er. Maybe my stupid old bike really was the problem? Or maybe this was a fluke?