I hadn't been on my bike for 2 weeks so I really had no idea what to expect out of training today. But to prevent a chill and getting sick again I decided for the full arm and leg warmers today plus even my ski pants over because the zipper on my warm-up pants broke. And there was no chill in the air at all so this was overkill. The warm-up was fine after a less than thrilling ride over to Skatås. In the wet grass the Conti XKings still amazed me because I seemed to have loads of grip and a nice steady speed. I am starting to wonder why I just ordered a pair of Tufo Flexus Cubus but I know it will be even better with tubes and the lighter wheels. So then it was time for a race up in the usual spot but with a new track which had my mind spinning for awhile. The difference today was the massive wind that would gust up unexpectedly, usually when I just started on the long gravel sections.

I was kind of squished in the start as usual and CC  Lasse had set up a rather nasty corner just after so I was way off the line and basically lost a ton of positions. But after that tricky grass section full of holes and the triple bunny hop on the uphill part followed by yet another down and up section I could then see where I was in relation to everyone else. Hmm. Not great. I passed Anki and one of the kids before the long gravel part where I could see three riding kind of together. They must be passed!

I kind of took it easy the first lap but then after the first part it was time to pass the first on a nice acceleration after a grass corner. One down. The next guy was riding the same MTB I have so obviously he had to be passed. I waited until the horse track and actually got both of them on one straight but it cost me a lot of energy. The next in front was Lasse and he was pretty far ahead so this would be tough. And I could also see that one of the guys I passed was still there behind me. Oh, I forgot to mention that I took a nice slide in one of the grass corners because I didn't slow down and that distracted the guy behind. I also heard him make some mistake on the bunny hop part so he was gone for awhile. Lasse was also slowing down so I tried to close the gap and was actually pretty close. Then I fell apart.

Yes...I am not a superhuman. Chris Cross has a limit. My usual strategy of going full out from the start seemed to have collapsed in what ended up to be the last lap. If I had known this I would have pushed myself harder but my leg cramp came on fast and by the time I was at the end of the horse straight I was ready to faint. Lasse was gone and the two behind passed and I was left saying hello to Mr. Wall. I managed to keep together enough so that I wasn't so far behind those two which is what is annoying considering it was the last lap.

From now on I will ride without the leg warmers because that is probably what caused my cramp. And I see the weekend in Kumla as a training weekend because they have the toughest track in the Cup in my opinion. Today was only 30 min too. Aj.

Well, the curse seems to have returned. Yesterday morning a Klass III headache moved into my brain and I was feeling very bläää all day at work. I took my temperature at home and it said 35.5 C which only means that my thermometer is broken and/or cheap because I know a fever when I get one.

Today is not much better so I have already cancelled my night in Karlstad and will have to see how I feel tomorrow morning and whether a pre-race 6 hour drive is going to be possible or not. Two years ago I would have just raced anyway but since this is for fun I have a different view now.

So we shall see what the day brings for Chris Cross.

I suppose many of you are wondering what my excuse was this time for missing practice. And probably there is some speculation about secret plans and special training in preparation for Branäs. And that is kind of true.

Sooner or later those of us lost to CX start to realize that a race weekend requires two bikes because if you trash the bike the first day you are left watching on the Sunday. I started with my Merida Cross 4 which I bought at CykelCity Sthlm quite a few years back and this was enough to get me hooked on the sport. But I soon realized that to fit in here in Gbg one had to have a Ridley and building my X-Ride was the start of a new era of cycling experiences. The point of this story is that tonight I had to get both bikes in race shape.

This is the first time I have ridden both back to back and what an incredible difference. The Merida felt like it was 20kg and was slow starting and had a geometry that was all wrong. Maybe this is what a 29er would feel like for me? But after a few minutes it felt okay and things were in top shape so it was time to switch. Yes, I made the right choice indeed. Ridley X-Ride is da shit. The difference was absolutely incredible! And the good news is I fixed my bottom bracket noise so now it is race ready.

The moral of this story is that I need another Ridley X-Ride and when I do get one my Merida Cross 4 will be retired to being a commuter bike...

It is always nice with positive surprises on a very dull Monday morning. Unfortunately it was not an email from Ridley offering me a bike for all the promotion and hits for X-Ride here. And it also wasn't the bank to say that I deserve a free house for being such a good customer. Okay, actually the news wasn't all that exciting but it did the trick anyway.

I wonder who will get the task of keeping track of everyone in H30 and H40 class scattered across Super and Prestige? Either way, this is great news for me because finishing 45th is not exactly great for points. But something around 20th could be possible given that H30 has always been the smallest class.

My last minute interest in Branäs has meant a bit of shopping for some extra brake pads. And now I see that I am out of chain oil and my gloves are not in top shape either. There will be no time to look at my tubdäck because I now need to make sure both the Ridley and the Merida are in running order. I am not exactly sure about my bottom bracket fix yesterday and I am starting to realize that I am pretty shite at repairs in general. But I try.

Anyway, it looks like the track is full of corners and that is great for me. But I wonder just how far up the ski hill it goes. I hope we are not in for a Lund thing all over again.

So it was time again for the highlight of the weekend and another CX race. Yesterday I was out for a bit of tjuvträning and testing the XT pedals I had moved over from my MTB. It was pretty wet everywhere so I saw pretty quickly that the XKing tires are not absolutely perfect when there is mud. But I did learn a bit more about how to handle the bike. On my way home I felt my vevparti coming loose so I tightened that up and this morning on my ride over to Skatås everything was clunking away making a hell of a noise. That brought me down as much as my lack of sleep. Later on I found out it was because I had the arm too tight against the bottom bracket so I think it is fixed now. But I should probably change the bottom bracket anyway.

Warm-up was some corners in a little sand field and that was also going very wrong. The starts went better this week since I just concentrated on pedalling rather than waiting till my shoe was clicked in. They click in sooner or later just automatically. Still, my starts were going very well.

For the first 'race' we did a tempo lap around a portion of the track and the fastest would get to wear a leader jersey (Hisingens CK shirt). Björn did not seem to be so thrilled to wear that but ya gotta love the Gbg humour. I nailed my start and accelerated well along the back straight even though I instantly felt sick. It is tempo so that is the right feeling. Things were going superb and my dismount and run up the hill were great but on my remount I slipped on the pedal and lost 2 seconds so I had to put in a serious sprint to come in at 1:16. The fastest was 1:06 and correcting for the 2s meant I was only off by 8 seconds. Not bad.

Then it was time for the real 5-lap race where once again I got to start at the front. I was next to Sven and he pretty much took me out in the start because I had nowhere to ride but I got a start anyway and was pretty far from last. I passed Lasse at this first part and was right on the tail of a group of around 5 riders. It was kind of crowded still so I was kind of calm and just concentrated on not running into anyone. At the end of lap 1 I was behind a woman from Uddevalla CK and I passed on one of the straights near the finish line to see who was next in front. Next was Anton, the man with the greatest race face in the business. But there was some kind of race yesterday so when he hit something on the first part of the singletrack I could pass in a pretty aggressive way. A bit farther along when the long grusväg part started he passed me again but I was not ready to give up. So I tried to sit på rulle and on the straight after the mud puddle I attacked and got ahead. I just kept consistent and the more I looked back the more farther ahead I was getting. Good good.

So then in front of me I could see an MCK jersey and this felt like a repeat of last week with Sven. So I thought I would try again because with every straight I was gaining a little bit. Peter could see me coming at the parts where the course turned back on itself and I could see that he was getting a bit slow. Maybe this could work. Time again for a super last lap. By the end of the long straight he was less than 20 m ahead and I did my best to fly through the grass and over to the tree section. The way out of that was rough so I couldn't really get the attack I wanted but at the finish line I had closed the gap to around 5 m. Almost.

If I can keep up this steady pace for 40 minutes I think the real races will be pretty nice.

When your boss is suddenly very happy to see you it does not take a genius to predict that a pile of work is on the way. But in my case that same boss is also the one that approves my vacation days. So I was willing to sacrifice training today for some key days off in October. I have also been sneezing all week and I have to teach some med students tomorrow so there were lots of obstacles today.

Anyway, I finally made the proper choice and sent in my tävlingslicens application. So bring on CX Cupen! I doubt I can get everything fixed by Branäs so the plan is to make my cup premiere in Kumla, one of the classics. They have everything but it is a rough way to start the season given the serious hills and the sucking grass in the park. But actually that is perfect training for Falun the week after. Tanumshede is obviously close but there is a Norwegian alternative and I am keen on a 3-country season. And they always draw a huge crowd over there. I have never seen the tracks in Sunne so there is a definite and Sthlm is the place I always find someone to battle against since there are so many people starting. And by then the Danes will be going so I can end the season in CPH with a race or two. Yes. Now I am psyched!

And so it was finally time to finish the week in the best possible way...with cyclocross! My roll over to Skatås from home was anything but superb despite being the time that I always train. But the more I rolled the more I woke up. After rounding up people who were scattered all over it was time to give Lisebergs camping a taste of CX. We started with dismount training and starts before heading over to take a few trips through the sand in front of thousands of fotball-playing kids. But this is all boring compared to the race so let's jump right to that.

Two races at 15 min each is good since not much tends to happen after the group gets spread out and plus I assume we will get points for both races. I was given #5 which is probably the closest I will get to the top of anything so why not. Startled 1 as always. Everyone passed me at the start, as always. But I did keep up all the way until after the obstacle and grass hill climb. I seemed to be sitting behind Lasse (I think that is the name, if not I fix later) and kind of rode a third of a lap behind but I realized it was better to just pass and take off since I was certain to make a mistake. Besides, Åsa Erlandsson was in front of him. And this made no sense because she is actually fast so I thought, wait, could this be my chance to pass someone who has actually won CX SM??? My non-cycling friends would like to hear this. So it was time to unleash the extra horses and give this a shot.

I was being 'Fixie Chris' again and sticking with the same gear but I did have two more down before I was maxed on the 34. But this really worked well because I could accelerate enough to close the gap up to Åsa. And then she fell in the grass corner which was kind of sloped downhill at the finish so I asked if she was okay and then took off as fast as I could. I passed! But she was still there and I then realized I didn't really know where I was going so I led us the wrong way a couple of times. But then I missed a whole section and had to turn back so Åsa and Lasse had passed and I was starting again with a lap to go. Crap. I was på rulle with Lasse just at the start of the singletrack section and he seemed keen to stay ahead so I had to skip over the braking part in the tree corner and could fly passed and see what Åsa was up to. Hmm...need those extra two gears now. I did a massive sprint down the last long grusväg part and went into that fun grass corner at top speed (superb tires, I say!) and had caught Åsa. And then she fell again on the same hill and I could roll pass and be the winner of Dam Elit class. =)

Race #2 was entirely different because I had killed myself in the first race. So my Startled 1 was again wasted although I made an effort and I think I could keep up with better utväxling. Åsa was way ahead this time since she let some air out of her tires so this race was uneventful. I passed Lasse again on the first lap and then there wasn't anyone else in any close range. I could see Sven around 75m ahead so I thought I would try and basically did the rest of the race flat out. I might have gained a bit at first but Sven could see me and had things under control. Either way, this was an excellent day for Chris Cross.

Honestly, why am I even considering skipping CX Cupen? I have the car. I have vacation days left. I even have the money. Branäs is already out but the rest are still open. Hmmm...

Since this blog is only text it might be nice with some questions. When I am training I rarely stop so there is just no time for pics. And my guess is that you would rather see pics of someone else. So, what kind of questions are there in this lovely pre-CX period?

1. Will there be a Focus Cross Race this year in Tidan? It is usually in September and was a blast when I tried it 2 years ago. They also have a very large Sportklass so I would have many to race against. If anyone knows anything just post a comment.

2. Will I manage to get a deal on a tävlingslicens? CX races are considered 2013 so why can't I get a licence for now and use it next year too? Of course making that change would screw over everyone else so I don't expect much support for that idea. Still, I have emailed SCF and will see what I get for reply.

3. Why am I not busy gluing my tubdäck? Yes, exactly. Why not? I do have a set of Vittora XM which have been sitting here since late 2010.

4. Why is it sunny this weekend? Göteborgs Superprestige needs a bit of wet grass and mud if you ask me.

5. Why have I not ordered a 46-36 crankset yet? How many times do I need to be shown that 50-34 is wrong because I end up always on 34 with a cadence of 2000.

6. And finally, which CX Cup races will you be doing? Add a comment below. If I am stuck with engångslicens and Sportklass I will do the Falun weekend (for tradition) and the Tanumshede weekend because it sounds nice. And then two weekends in Denmark depending on where around CPH they are. So 4 weekends + the local races is just fine. And if the licence works out I would add Sunne to my list and probably Kumla.

Last night it was time for the real world test of my new Continental CrossXKing tires at CX training...now with even more snabba pojkar. I was a bit late with the driving so I was iskallt when it was time for the first exercise of the night which was 'not a race'. Or perhaps we can call it 'stafett of death' now that it is a reoccuring event. Yes, start sprint down to the end of the grusplan, dismount while panic braking, remount and then sprint back again...first on your own and then in a group of two. Nope, no racing here. Being iskallt meant that everything here went entirely wrong. But I did get warmed up.

Next was some stair training which I suppose Philip did not enjoy given a nasty fall right away. Hope your back is okay. This was my first feeling of 'race stress' because obviously I am not use to riding with a whole bunch of others around. But I managed to get around and be able to get some feel for the tires. I would not say that the grip was superb because I was still slipping a bit in the loose gravel/dirt and the faster I went the worse the slipping became. But I think the difference is that I can actually go faster with these tires and so once I train at higher speeds these issues will disappear. But the RS20 wheels feel completely unstable and fragile so I guess there is no way around a new wheelset.

Tomas announced that he will do teknikträning on Thursdays and to give a taste of this we tried an example. Run 50 m with your bike at max speed and then jump on without any hesitation. Yikes. I am not sure what the teknik was here but 'tripping over the bike' is one possibility and naturally there are many other outcomes when one jumps on a bike seat and misses. Anyway, I did not plan for 2 sessions this week so I doubt I will make it today. But next week is better.

Yes, and then there was that race which was not an actual race. CC Lasse decided again that we should try and keep together to practice riding with others (good thought). So the first lap us slow people were allowed to skip over the stairs and get a head start so the others would be chasing us. One other idea was that anyone who got a 50 m lead should have to brake. Or my idea that they should have a 'straffrunda' and have to take the stairs 3 times. None of this really helped and we still all ended up spread out. Oddly enough many people disappeared after the start...that was quite the lead! The track was fast and pretty flat so I could keep the same gear all the way. I was experimenting with utväxling and was up on my 50 klingan for the last 2 laps. When it is dry I should certainly be able to manage this but a 46-36 is also likely in my future.

Anyway, Sunday is the first Introcross and it will be at Skatås kl 10. There was some confusion about the name since there never seem to be any new people showing up anymore. So Outrocross was a new name suggestion. But I will always call it Göteborgs Superprestige. A whole pile of points were also promised since some MTB people would be racing in Uddevalla that day and since 'this is not a race' there is no reason to be that honest with points and things. We should also bring 20kr but I assume that bringing more will be good for more points.

Speaking of Continental CrossXKing tires, I noticed that their 2013 line-up includes a tubular version. Yes...give me now. I try. My guess is a tubular CrossXKing would pretty much take care of any tire choice dilemmas.

And then the schedule for Introcrossen has suddenly appeared in my Inbox. Nice nice. With this many races the motivation to get a tävlingslicens drops even more. So, Göteborg Superprestige lives on...

I realize that most of you out there would never dream of considering anything but tubulars for your cyclocross. And I also understand the benefits of tubulars and know the feeling of when things float along nicely. But Continental just released the CrossXKing tires which are the cyclocross version of the MTB tires that changed my life. On my MTB those things work in every condition and I was flying along effortlessly. Those tires have saved me many minutes in long races. So obviously I had to try the cross version.

The numbers look pretty good. Their RaceSport version is race-legal 32 mm and 3 pli/180tpi is certainly comparable to the Vittorias and Tufos I have tried before. But their suggestion of 3 bar will probably turn off most of you immediately.

After the sliding incidents back in the 2010/2011 season I chose to get a very serious mud tire and use it all the time. The name CX Pro was obviously just a name because these had the steel wire to keep them in shape and treads the size of BMX tires. The grip was amazing even if it felt like 2kg on each wheel. But that was the snow season when organizers made every track into MTB so I needed grip. I threw on the CrossXKings on the only other clincher wheelset I have, the very non-cross Shimano RS20s. But still it was guaranteed to feel better than the bomb-proof rims from my old Merida and the 2kg tires.

Better? Oh yes. Having ridden yesterday with the old tires and today with the new I can definitely feel the difference. And I also know that they have least grip at first and just get better after a few weeks of use. The best thing is that they have a nice line of treads right on the edge of the tire and for the first time ever I was able to lean way down in the corners without any sign of slipping. The wet grass was also quite positive. I could constantly sustain my pedalling 2-3 gears lower than yesterday with the old tires. This was exactly the same improvement as when I first tried my Tufo Prestige tubulars.

But we will have to wait until Wednesday and the 'real-world' testing at Slottsskogsvallen...

So now the day is here and we get all this info about CX Cupen that we have been eagerly awaiting for. So there is plenty to read at SCF, CX Sweden and Facebook. Since CX Cupen is no longer a kind of dictatorship there are not really any drastic changes. Drastic changes are impossible in a democracy and would lead to another 89 comments on Facebook.

I find it interesting how no one is just directly pointing out the real problem. People who are fast are racing Superklass and they always win. And we could all give a list of the names of these 'people' because it is pretty obvious which cyclists are always at the top. So I think it is great that the varvnings rule is gone in Prestige but I still think someone has to kick a few Superklass winners up to Prestige. It should be enough to win two races in Super to be banned from it. So I fully support the testing of some kind of A/B points system because that is perhaps a more polite way to kick people.

In terms of my racing it is not looking great. I still have no tävlingslicens and to waste 700kr for only a couple of races is not my idea of fun. The fact that I have been able to do 4 top-quality MTB marathons without a licence demonstrates the flaw in the system. Either everyone should have a licence or no one should. If there is a way around the system everyone will start to use it. And they do.

Open Sport Mix is still 30 minutes and that I can do with engångslicens but it will mean that I probably only do one weekend of the Cup. I can see that there is some bitterness since tradition is broken. Falun is not starting the Cup and Sthlm has taken the finale from Göteborg. So I smell a bit of a southern revolt and a few lovely weekends in Copenhagen. I won't need a licence there and I can race 50 minutes.

There still seems to be nothing posted about CX Cupen for the year so my plans of getting a tävlingslicens are pretty much zero at the moment. It is also a sign that GCK's webpage now also has the link to the race schedule in Denmark. The enthusiasm for long-distance travel does not seem to be there this year.

Meanwhile, in Denmark I can take Motion class, race 50 min + 1 lap and pay roughly 50DKK for the experience. No licence. No problems. And one should point out that you can drive to CPH twice for the same cost as once to Branäs and if you stay in Malmö it is even cheaper for hotels.

Not to mention the reasonably-priced tasty beer options. De er dejlig!

Well, talk about a completely different situation compared to last CX training with GCK. It still started with half a day of rain but that managed to stop by the time we started. It seemed to be 'snabba pojkar' day as the best in Göteborg's cycling all converged to remind me than I am not quite so fast as I might think or sound when I write here. But great training it was and certainly a nice reunion.

This time (luckily) we stayed at Slottsskogsvallen and I had more control over my bike in the forest parts...so much so that it became superkul to take all the banked corners and little hill parts. Good good. But I also remembered that I never train at night so my body was screaming 'Ehh...e du go eller?' for the entire time. Have to work on that.

Some highlights were the sprint to the end of the grusplan followed by panic braking, jumping off the bike and running around the corner before remount and sprint back. This is something I have been training for weeks but at high speed and with dirt sticking in the pedals it just did not work. Fair enough. One thing that did work is my front brake since I was close to taking a handlebar vurpa in grand style.

Once we got to a lap we started with a bit of lagtempo with Patrik leading first. The stairs felt fine, the remount after was sådär and the one-shoe-out hill slide got easier with time. But on this first lap I misread a mud corner and took a fairly typical vurpa and did not hit my shoulder. That has to be a first. Anyway, upp på cykel and continue on the grass/grus/grus/grass/grus part until it was my turn to lead the lap. I did my best to do this at full speed and I also did my best to hit every possible water puddle and get completely soaked. Very fun. By the time we did the actual race I was dead so I just took my 5 laps at my pace, making sure to take the stairs each time (it was optional...but why skip the best part?). I also didn't get lapped which is a victory in its own right.

I tried to get some details from CC Lasse and the others but no one seems to know much about CX Cupen, the classes and even if/when Introcross will start. There were a couple positive comments about racing in Denmark and some will do the entire Swedish cup. But things should be more clear soon. For now I have a week of meetings and guest entertaining here but next Thursday I will be back in training business. Although first I need to clean my bike so a träningsvärk Skatås trip is looming...

On my first trip out towards Tahult I stopped at the bus shelter to check my map and I saw a note that is more true than ever..."This note has more readers than your blog". Funny enough this particular bus shelter was in the middle of nowhere so even this note could not have had that many readers. Yet it is still true. The cykelblogg trend is over now that everyone has a cykelblogg. When I first started with this I figured that no one would bother reading about my cycling and training. And yet people did. But now I only get readers searching for Ridley X-Ride.

By the way, the 2013 Ridley X-Ride can have disc brakes and I do not have one of these. So I would be more than happy to test ride one and promote it everywhere I go. I also read that Ridley will have newly-designed mountainbikes. Me want.

Anyway, the weekend started with my usual CX pass except this time in some proper sucking wet grass. Then it was Kulturkalaset followed by sleeping in on Sunday which led me to miss CX training. Blä. So instead I felt like a drive and that inspiration took me all the way to Dalsland to see their canal and other various beautiful lakes. Nice drive indeed.

Then tomorrow it is time for some CX training with GCK and I am definitely going because I already know I will not be able to train much for the next week. Just a few too many meetings/conferences all scheduled at the same time. But this is temporary. I will be the master of Introcross. =)

As you know I need a new MTB frame that is the correct size and with Eurobike in a couple of weeks there are plenty of things to google at the moment. If you are a tekniknörd with a wallet to support it, 2013 is looking to be the year for you.

I like a good comparison test and this one at MountainBikeAction caught my attention. And what worries me is that basically every company that has leaked their 2013 lineup seemed to be 100% 29er. But according to the test the 29er is slow to get rolling, harder to stop and means that you can get away with bad technique when the trail gets rough. I got the feeling that 29ers were for fat lazy people that did not really care about skill and did not want too much excitement. Kind of like the people who buy Korean cars. This test was all for 27.5er while the good old 26er came last. It said that you have to be talented to go fast on a 26er.

There is basically no complete 27.5er on the market yet unless you can squish bigger tires on your 26er and probably Eurobike will show us a whole pile of new options. But it will cost. The first production year is always expensive because trend sets the price and not reality. Kind of like how an Autumn 2012 pair of jeans costs 1400kr yet an almost identical pair of jeans from last year would cost 700kr at an outlet. I don't think I can jump on the 27.5er trend in the first year unless it can work with the components I have.

So it looks like I will be continuing on a 26er if I can still find a frame in that size. I have the fork and the components already so this is the cheapest option until 27.5ers are available here and all the bugs are fixed. And while I am doing so I can pass 29ers going uphill, I can crush them in a final sprint and I can claim to have superb technical abilities for riding it through singletrack without falling. Plus, I get more training out of the whole deal. Yes, give me a 26er again.

To be honest there has not been very much cross in Chris Cross these last few days. Way Out West left me humming German songs and extremely tired so my Sunday morning trip on the Ridley was not terribly fast. But I did tackle the grass hills at Kviberg again so my muscles did get some benefit. And the tempo riding along the path beside Säveån was great for handling at high speeds.

Since then Göteborgs Kulturkalaset has occupied my time and also filled my stomach with yet more junk food. But I am still trying to keep up the training so I have the routine up before I get piles of work again.

I also seem to have taken a big axe to SCF on Facebook under the CX discussions because I really do believe that no beginner in cycling will ever agree to pay a pile of money just to race a few motionslopp now and again. And the lack of incentive means we have piles of excellent cyclists that are outside of the system. I work with several of them. Maybe I am just a bit sensitive tonight since my TV box is busted and now I will have to go and yell at Telia and probably get stuck buying a new one. But it just seems to me like things are very messed up in a sport that could potentially be great for so many people. In only their second year Dalslands X-Country had over 500 cyclists and they had nothing to do with SCF.

Just make a good race. Don't complicate things with rules because people will lose interest.

Once again those at Vasaloppet have placed CykelVasan on the same weekend as the only music festival worth going to, Way Out West. And after finding out that Blur and Feist were on the list for one of these two events it was again an easy choice. Of course CykelVasan was already sold out by then so I suppose 'choice' is the wrong word. But I did choose anyway and paid a pile of cash.

And how is a festival like CykelVasan you might ask? Well, it is a lot like MTB marathon training because it lasts so long and you are in the same position for most of that time. After the first two hours your upper body gets all stiff and you start to get cramps in your legs. And when you feel hungry you stop at a strange looking tent and get something which is sort of food but mostly is just designed to get you to the next food stop. Then there is the dehydration risk which they have also solved by having some dodgy tap water stations. Both have their sprint sections where your pulse rises for 3-4 minutes but mostly you just enjoy the sights and keep going.

Sure, there are also disadvantages with WoW like getting marinated in cigarette smoke but things like crowding are just as common in MTB as festivals. And, just like MTB, you can always take it easy and go to the back where you can run your own race. At the end of the race you can have a medal while the festival equivalent is a T-shirt. Both can be used to bragg and make your colleagues feel like they missed the greatest event ever. And your colleagues will not understand and you will be forever labelled musiknörd, cykelnörd or some other nörd depending what is most trendy.

Or why not be ambitious and check out the proper races in Belgium? Here is a link to the CX schedule for the season 2012-13. Any race with a D - C - B on it would be open for us Veteran. Well, at least D class anyway...

I also found a blog called Dr. Funk's Belgian Cyclocross Experience which seems to be by a fellow Canadian that also caught the CX bug and had to try it out for real.

Hmmm....

Here is something for you cross riders down in Skåne...the preliminary CX schedule for Denmark. Check here for details. While Sweden decides to reduce the number of cup races they are basically running every weekend across the bridge. But their Post Cup seems to be the equivalent of our CX Cup, except that it has been around a lot longer.

Things that caught my eye were 24-25 nov and this CX Fix Etapeløb which sounds very unique. Their promo video here seems like fun. And I am assuming that everything with Sjælland will be fairly close to CPH so it would be easy to fill in those extra gaps in the schedule.

I still don't even have a competition licence for this year so it would be great if someone could post some details about the classes in CX Cup. If I can race in sport and get a few points while not having to get a licence it would be perfect.

Another weekend and that means another 2 passes on the CX. Yesterday was TvättaCrossen since the only real goal with the pass was to ride over to Skatås and use the hose to wash off the remains of PanicCrossen. But the wet grass all over Sävedalen meant a whole pile of spontaneous tree slaloms, grass hills and some hill running before taking 8:an and the other grusväg around Delsjön to eventually reach Skatås. I had to take a few laps around the small field next to the fenced football fields since it is famous for slippery gravel and I suck at corners there. The wet made it not quite as slippery but I tried a few corners with my shoe unclipped to try and really slide my way around. Need a bit more work at that.

And then this morning it was TempoCrossen which started at the grass field next to Allum where I did a few dismounts/stairs. Then over to Säveån where there are some nice little hills and tree slaloms but there was not so much to entertain a CX rider. So I decided on tempo to Jonsered to see if I could find anything there. Nope. Just a nice lake and a stop for a banana. So it was tempo back again via Kåhög and the famous wind stretch which not-surprisingly is a lot easier on the CX.

A lot of my training is just on basic CX technique because in my case I can gain just as much time with better technique as I can with better muscles. And my improvements this season suggest that my muscles are doing just fine. My bike remounts are much better already and I am working on corners. My acceleration is great and I am learning what my brakes can do and how the Ridley behaves. All this will save me minutes. Riding at max will still need training but GbgSuperPrestige will help with that.

People are starting to discuss CX Cupen already which is encouraging but before I decide on anything I am wondering about the cup rules. When you are like me at the bottom end of Superklassen the points do not really matter...even if I can place well in the cup by doing every race. I thought the point this year was to have less cup races and more local series. Other than GbgSuperPrestige I would not mind heading to Borås, Jkpg or Skåne sometimes too. So for example Branäs is of no interest at all for me. Instead I could go to Skåne or Denmark two other weekends and not end up driving any farther. But maybe I might change my mind if they come up with some smart points system. The rest of the weekends fit with my plans and to make my guess at the secret location for the Sthlm weekend I vote for Hammarby or that general area towards Hellasgården. I also vote for a rematch at Frescati. But I hope they are not thinking about Tullinge where Lida Loop starts because that is nowhere near anything.

The other day's Göteborgs CK posting by Sven sounded very urgent. In Sthlm they are already training CX. Oh no. And now I read on Öijer's blog that they will conclude CX-Cupen and give extra points to make sure everyone shows up. So I can see that the pride of Göteborg in the CX world was at risk. We must train...PanicCrossen!

This is the first club training I have done in more than a year so I overestimated the driving time to get to Slottsskogsvallen and was sitting there for about 40 min. During that time one hell of a thunderstorm had passed but things looked okay at 18.30. CC Lasse decided for what I thought of as untraditional CX training over at Änggården so my first job was to see if I could keep up with those in the upper side of Superklassen. I made it halfway up the hill before I had to give up the fight but that was satisfying.

But my brain kicked in with the rain and I started to chicken out everywhere. On my MTB wet rocks means a nasty fall over 50% of the time so seeing wet rocks was not making me happy. Even if I had plenty of grip and was not sliding, my brain would not let go. It wasn't so bad at the top and there were some nice chances for attacking hills and trying to catch people but when the rain really started and we began to roll back downhill my glasses had 'permafog' and I couldn't see anything, plus my brakes were not working plus, again, the wet rocks.

After this I was not so enthusiastic back down in the forest part at Vallen so instead I decided to run up the famous stairs a few times and roll around the grusplan and slide there. But I will be back even if next week is Way Out West and the week after I will probably also be festivalling.

For some reason I decided to check my visit stats and I have succeeded in grand style. Indeed this is Sveriges minsta cykelblogg. In fact no one in Sweden is reading it at all. The only visits I have are Google hits for my review of my fantastic Ridley X-Ride. In fact I deserve a discount or a free one for all this fine publicity...

So I could write about my new CX-etapplopp SlalomCrossen which I completed today. Obviously my Chris Cross name came from my enthusiasm for riding slalom between trees at training passes and certainly not my hiphop skills. And SlalomCrossen is definite proof of that. Yesterday some guy stopped walking his dog to look in fascination (or disgust) at me ride lap after lap around a set of 8 well-placed trees. And slalom is king when you get to 8:an and other nice grusväg parts around Delsjön. The great thing about cross training is that I can keep myself thoroughly amused without having to go anywhere else. For långlopp training I have to go far and spend a long time. Anything I do on my CX will make me breathe heavily. Interval is da shit.

Then I have written the word confessions in the title above...oooh...what kind of saucy secret will I tell now, you might wonder. But, nej, nothing like that. I just have to confess that my MTB from Full Dynamix is complete crap and it always has been crap. I have kept tolerating it because, like many Italian things, it looks fantastic and it cost a lot of money. First off the frame has always been too big for me and many have told me this. It is fine for långlopp with simple terrain but it is a rolling death trap in proper singletrack. I improved this a bit with Sid because the Recon on it was a hopeless shock. But the singlemost explanation for my problem in singletrack is the bike size. The second problem you all know very well...the clicking noise when I pedal. And I have still not managed to find the source of this despite taking everything off. And why have I not just put on the new XT group I bought? Well, the bottom bracket seems to be rusted on. Not to mention a worrying wiggle in the frame which I was noticing in Mörksuggejakten. I was slow in the downhills for a reason. So the whole bike is showing many signs of low quality and I could be so much better if I could only trust the material. My Ridley lets me hit speeds I would never dare to on my MTB. It is quality right through.

So when I keep cancelling races (like this weekend) or decide to not do any XC races there is a whole more behind it. I have to get rid of this rolling death trap of an MTB...and soon I will.

The ever-dependable SMHI had a Klass I warning for heavy rain and lightning this morning and there actually were some nasty dark clouds so their forecast might be true. To me it just sounded like absolutely perfect weather to jump on the Ridley and have a nice wet grass session.

My theory that you have to be a proper athlete to actually train in such crap weather was proven true because the only person I saw was runner Mustafa Mohamed. Okay, I also saw a guy on a LVG who looked very pissed off in the rain. To help him feel better I decided to pass him on the grass. I am so kind.

It looks like I need to vary my locations quite a bit because on this my 5th pass I can see a nice trail. Luckily Sävedalen is full of so many little grass hills that I can spread out my tracks and perhaps hide under the disguise of different cycling clubs. But after seeing what horses can do to trails in Jonsered I don't feel too bad about actually churning up some wild grass here and there. Over at Kviberg around the old military building there are also some very nice grass hills for strength sessions.

It wasn't quite wet enough today to get that proper sucking grass but my pass tomorrow after all this rain should be lovely...

I work with many people who think that 15C is not summer weather. If that is the case summer is over and it's time for CX season. I have had two passes already...what about you?

Of course this is partially because I finally started to fix my noisy MTB. I started with the obvious and changed the chain but that did not fix any noise and actually put all the gear adjustments out of whack so it felt like I was back on my old Trek 6500 again (dropped chain every time there was a hill). But when I started fiddling with the gears I saw that the wires were useless also. I have bought the new XT groupset and was planning to save it for a nice new frame and then just use this bike as my cykelglädje spare. But now it looks like the best bet is to put the XT set on this one and see if that is good enough for the type of race I do. I am in no hurry to do that because if I will I am going to do things right and that means properly cleaning the old frame and actually checking for problems. For all I know there could be a crack somewhere. To be honest Mörksuggejakten was a fine way to end an excellent spring season.

Right, so I mentioned 2 attempts to revive Sävecrossen, my own local variant of the infamous Hondacrossen grass hell. Once again I have to start by praising my Ridley X-Ride because it just feels superb in every way! Much more superb than my unused back muscles in this particle bike position. Here there are plenty of little grass sections with small hills and obstacles so I could take around 5 laps and then move on to the next spot and experience pretty much everything I will see in a CX race (except fast cyclists, of course).

Training now is not at all a bad idea given that the first CX Cup race is mid-September and certainly all those local Kanskecrossen and Introcrossen things will want to be started long before the cup premiere. So maybe this is a good time to take an MTB break. I might actually be good at CX this season with some practice...