Kolmårdscrossen race report

Okay, here comes a race report different from my usual ones just in case anyone was getting bored. Today Söderköping was rainy and very wet so things were not going my way at all. Johan started right next to me and I had a perfect start for once except Johan was way ahead. Huh? Already on the first sand part I had trouble clipping into my pedals so at the hill I had already lost a lot of ground. By the top I had caught up again and was there down the slippery grass slaloms down to the start area's hill of death. But this time the downhill was slippery and scary because it turned a bit at the bottom.

Anyway, things were okay passed the pit and I was right behind Erik from Master who must have had a very bad start considering where he finished. Anyway, the problem today was that it was so wet and slippery everywhere that every time I tried to speed up I was sliding all over. Also every hill was just pure mud so running up meant sliding mostly and then a battle with the pedals. So I had kind of lost hope pretty early on.

The look of relief to reach the top of the muddy hill of death. (Photo Per Engström)

I could see Johan ahead looking back a lot but I just could not make anything work. The longer the race went the more slippery it got and the more frustrated I got. The start area hill was very bad and I hit a bush twice plus always missed the first slalom curve because I was not braking enough. I had a front wheel slide I managed to save and then the last two times down the hill to Göta Kanal were seriously scary. This was cyclocross in every way but I could see my lack of training and skills today. It is incredible how far behind I could get on a bad day like this.

But I am still continuing and will have to see what I can do about my technique. Because the fact is I finished on a day when many did not even start. I think I was 34th or something so this means even more cup points than last week.