I moved my wheels with the Tufos over to the only bike I had to race with today and took a less than satisfying test lap. The warmup lap later on felt a bit better but basically my bike had no brakes and not so much feeling but it would have to do for this cup finale. I started next to Lars E but after my attempt at some pre-race psych he took off like the planes leaving from Arlanda near the track and my body was in shock. The start was fine but my lungs were dying. I think I need to get this asthma thing checked again.

First I have to say what a great job CK CX did with the advertising. Tons of people were there watching what became quite a few battles. And that would be great if it weren't for the curse I seem to have with this track. Last time I dropped my chain twice. And during my 3 test laps my bike was not behaving very well.

I could say that Day 2 of Karlstadscrossen was pretty much the same as Day 1 and the track did have the same characteristics in the reverse direction. The only difference was the freakin' metre of rain that had fallen since yesterday's race which left the track so wet that I immediately took out my paddling gloves and prepared to swim. I have never had a race this wet...and yet it was okay.

My 2 laps of 'warming up' was mostly to avoid getting completely soaked but also to see where I was going. Check. Start time. Check. Standing in the line and the starter says '15 sekunder'. FUCK! No warning at all, just KÖR and I actually had a decent start today but it would have been better if I had been awake. So by the slippery grus corner and the first löphinder I was back to last and holding on all I could. I was with the group for awhile again because of my direct path straight through the water while others tried to avoid. Coming off the short straight section I hit one "puddle", or should I say Lake Vänern, with speed and made a massive splashy splashy which covered my entire body with ice cold water. Aj. After this was the forest section which was tricky in this direction and none of the banked curves worked. It was just slide along and try not to mess up. But every puddle was killing my body temperature and I was cold as hell.

Out to the pit area and the grass and I could push along nicely and have a great rhythm. The tires were perfect and I was getting warm and also could start to see what was happening in front of me. I had caught up to someone temporarily but that was, as I said, temporary. Then the second time into the forest I could see someone from Västerås CK but, again, they took off because I was having trouble in the mud corners.

I think it was only 4 laps today because my next time passed the line I got the '2 laps to go' sign and at that point I had two of the P15-16s and Lars E in my sight so now it was time to give it everything. Somehow I managed to catch up and by the next time across the line I was together with one from OK Tyr and Vallentuna CK. I took a chance at the löphinder and it kept me within reach but I didn't attack yet because it was took soon in the lap. It was funny because we all took completely different lines, mine being the most splashy.

I had lost a bit of ground but in the slippery entrance part of the forest they slowed down a bit so I could catch up again. I messed up the hairpin corner but was still within reach and the next part I just went straight through every bit of water I could find and I was back with them again. Vallentuna was ahead of OK Tyr at this point and out on the pit section with the long muddy straight I made my first attack and passed OK Tyr and even tried for Vallentuna before the corner to the bridge but I didn't succeed there. I was behind a bit again but caught back up because the grass was my friend. I tried to be smart in the corners and that was smart because at the far end near the fence I was almost beside. Quick glance ahead and it was a long watery bit before the sharp left corner towards the sand. Hmm...now or never. So I attacked again and passed and was well above max at this stage. Could I hold on?

My acceleration towards the sand was perfection and I glided through nicely and now just had the stadium part left. Now I could also see that Lars E was quite close and looking tired so I kept on pushing in the longest sprint possible. I thought I was fairly comfortable but OK Tyr and Vallentuna were together and fighting.

So I rolled across the line just 11 seconds after Lars and just 1 and 3 seconds behind me were the other two. Wow! What excitement we had at the back of the pack today! And so much mud! To perform this well on a day like this is beyond my understanding. But it was wonderful!

And so it was time to visit Karlstad for the third time this year. From my test lap I could see that the course was basically flat with few crazy things so this could be a day to go all in and test the form before SM. During my last test lap I could see that it became slippery if I sped up too much and right about then the rain started and continued through our entire race.

It felt very strange to be able to roll out of bed and almost jump directly on my bike and head off to race. GöteborgsSuperprestige (or Introcross if you really prefer that...) was at Hästhagen today in Skatås which meant I could ride over and warm up on the way which was needed because I felt so slow and seg in my muscles. But that disappeared once it was race time. Today's track was shorter because of the cars parking for a running race but it still contained all the special corners, sand parts and mud sections spread out over some nice long and fast parts. To win here you need to be good at pretty much everything in cross. Perfect training.

Heat 1
This was going well and my start was greatish and quite a few people were behind me. After all the start stress was done and things had spread out a bit I could see that a woman on an MTB was the next person in front of me so I pushed on and tried to catch up and pass her. There must have been some parts of this track that were better for a CX but those parts were not really long enough. I got kind of close down at the far end which had the slippery mud/grass corners but on my way out of one my back wheel just stopped dead. I had to get off and see if something was stuck in it and I could not see anything. So I flipped the bike over and then Hanna and Laila passed and when I opened the quick release it started moving again. So I closed it and it seemed okay. Not a good sign but it seems fixed now. But I was passed by another two but obviously I looked eager (or pissed off) so they let me pass and I charged on to try and regain my lost positions. And FAN did I ever charge on. Not a sign of any cold in my body this time. Just full speed when I could manage it and hold on when I was sliding (which was pretty much everywhere). Laila was ahead of Hanna now and I knew I was running out of time in the 20 min heat but I managed to get within maybe 30 m of Hanna and I would have passed if I had had another lap. Technically we were all lapped so this is a time when having the extra lap would have been a good thing. Anyway, bad luck race but I gave it a hell of a try.

Heat 2
Now I was hungry for revenge but all of those who I was racing with positioned themselves nicely near the front so I had to work harder again. The start was kind of okay but since I ended up on the inside near the horse fence I was squeezed in and had to brake and let all of them roll by. That part was one of the very slippery mud corners so I just took it easy and waited for a moment. Right after that was the sandy part which again I took it easy on but somewhere in the part from here to the grusväg straight I passed Hanna, Laila, and someone else. In front of me again was the woman with the MTB and I could see that my CX was superior on those grass up-and-down hills. Or maybe it had more to do with the fact that I was not using my brakes at all. So by the end of that I was på rulle and passed her on the grass in perhaps a slightly aggressive way but if I didn't pass there I would have been stuck behind for the rest of the lap. So then it was time to charge on at full speed and build up a lead so I could mess up again. That was going well and on the next lap, again down on those grass/mud corners at the far end, I slipped and fell and was running a bit to get going before I made an unusually good remount and powered on. This is when I started paying attention to what was happening behind. The one with the MTB was gone, Laila was where I thought the one with the MTB should be and Hanna was battling to catch Laila. And that is how things stayed the rest of the race. I was doing the best I could to be fast and build up a lead on Laila but it stayed exactly the same no matter what I did. And, to top it all off we didn't get lapped!

And this is precisely why the national cup series does not work. I have no one to race against so I get a bit of excitement for the first couple of minutes and then I am on my own for the rest with zero motivation to push on or try. If there is someone to catch I am very motivated and much faster. I try and push myself during the last lap but it doesn't actually help me because the next person is so far ahead. The beauty of cross is when you can battle with someone who is your equal regardless of their age or gender. Battling with equals makes everyone work harder and we all get faster.

I am still planning to finish the national cup but when the number of riders drops so much every week it is obvious that my chances to race an equal are basically zero.