And so it was time for another attempt at finding some form although I felt pretty tired after the race in Tidan. The first thing I did is change the pedals to the latest XT I have on my MTB and that made a world of difference compared to their older pedal. Clipping out was no problems and I was free to take some nice foot out MTB corners which at Vallen there is plenty of opportunity to try out.

Jumping right to the race the start was very aggressive and with a sharp left it was especially 'nice' although people were being a bit too pushy today. At the end of the grass section where there was a little trail up around a tree someone on an MTB decided to pass me in a very unpleasant way that almost sent me into the tree. Hell, this is for fun.

Anyway, since there were a lot of cyclists around me today's race had a very different character than yesterday's and I was max in many spots just trying to either pass or stay ahead. And there were a couple of these incidents with someone from Alingsås who I would pass and then he passed me and then I passed again. Eventually after a lap or so of this I could end it. Over at the easy section around the fountain I surprisingly opened up a gap and could look ahead to the next guy.

I had just caught him at the stairs and I was going to pass at the top but my remounts had been shite all day. Except I kind of ran into him since his remount was also far from perfection so he was still just ahead on the way down the hill. Then, somewhere here I got really pissed off because a couple of people that were lapping me did so in a way that sent me clear off the track. Normally I am nice and give enough space for passing but for once I was actually racing someone and now that was messed up. Come on guys...let me also race! Anyway I had lost a lot of ground and was far behind again but I was apparently much faster on the grass and managed to catch up again at the stairs. This time I did run right passed him and got in the way nicely while I remounted and with a little sprint up the hill I had a comfortable gap. What I did not expect was that all of these I was racing decided only to do the 20 min race and all stopped at the end of that lap. So then it was me on my own for the next 20 min feeling seriously tired...