CK Valhall has saved our Stockholm weekend by announcing Valhallcrossen. Special tack for moving the event to Frescati. I was not looking forward to those stairs at Bosön.

The race will not be included in Merida-Northwave CX Cupen so that means Veteranklass instead of Supercool Superspeczialklass. But no one says that every race has to be a Cup race.

Anyway, only a few hours now until I pick up my new treasure...

Yes, 86 visits yesterday which is probably the record for my little page here. Of course Öijer linked me once but I didn't have the Google Analytics tracking set up yet so I missed that.

My new Ridley is up at Allebike in capable hands because they happened to be fastest and cheapest yesterday. Plus, I wanted to check out their new CX bike which Mattias from IK Ymer was floating around on this weekend. So my first ride will be tomorrow.

Then there is the thing with my tubdäck again. Last night I didn't have time after driving from Alingsås. Today my calendar says 'Sekt dag 13-20'. Yes, we are planning to invite Sven Nys (who I saw again in Partille this morning) so that we can worship him and his superior cross skills. Nej, they just like calling things Sektion here instead of Avdelning. Maybe it sounds more efficient? So I lose another gluing night in other words. Maybe I should put my limited time into proper test rides on the new bike. With weather this wet, my tires will just fall off anyway.

Well, it looks like I will have to change the name of my blog now. Since Björn called me Chris Cross my visits have steadily increased, mostly from the Stockholm area. Then a couple of days ago I was listed under Bloggtips on Mölndals CKs website. And after this fine premier weekend, it is clear that no one is more CX than we are.

But yesterday I had 50 hits and for today it is 68 so far because I have been linked as den här mannen by Lisa Ström. At least it didn't say 'den här gubbe'. =) So now I have to change the name of this blog. Any suggestions?

Sveriges superspeczial cyclocross blogg kanske?

And so it was time for CX Cupen race #2 and Ludvika Crossen was the kind of track I love. In fact, this reminded me a lot of the track in Borlänge two years ago. Tons of corners, grass and right in the centre. What a race! To make a long story short, I finished 31st in SuperSpeczialKlass which was last as usual but I was not so far behind.

Let's just pretend for a moment that I was actually racing in Dam Prestige instead. Not that I am considering any changes. But, how manly can you feel after just putting on our supercool new CX tempodräkt which was VERY tight? =) Anyway, the women started at the same time and this gave me some people to race.

The start went towards a small grass hill which some got stuck in and that caused a minor bit of chaos. But once 'corner hell' started, things were already spread out. The results list is a bit strange because I know that I passed another woman in a bit of a 'ful kurva' Sorry for that. I took the corner quite wide and cut back in which is the way to do things but perhaps not to someone in a different class.

Anyway, I had power on the small uphill with MCKs cheering section and in the grass so I was able to catch up to Mirella Ehrin of Team CykelCity who I was på rulle with for maybe a third of a lap. Now to the hill near the playground...focus of everything. I had decided to jump off early and run and Mirella didn't so we were side by side at the top. And in a moment that was very unlike me, I actually went down the hill side-by-side completely out of the groove and pulled away.

In my eagerness to get away I was taking lots of risks and this meant I was catching up to Lisa Ström from Falu CK. Funny enough, in her blog she has a picture of her blistered palm. I have one too. Aj. Somewhere in the middle of the race I had closed the gap to about 20m but on the road part at the start/finish she would open up a gap but then in the grass and corners I closed it again.

With 2 laps to go and a hell of an effort I was på rulle with Lisa and instead of just passing and trying to take off I followed her for most of the 2nd last lap. Again at that same hill she got stuck halfway up and I passed. It was not quite so easy to take off but gradually I had a gap. In the other grass hill just after the start/finish I made a mistake and she almost caught me so I had to ride at max to get a gap again.

As far as I know, I finished before her yet in the results list it says I finished 0.2 seconds after her? If that was the case, she made a hell of a spurt which was so fast that I didn't even see her. In reality, they probably didn't see my number or just forgot that I was still racing. Yes, and that is how I finished 6th place in Dam Prestige. =)

After a tough start yesterday, this made it all worth it. I pushed on for the entire race and only felt dead on the last lap. After the race I wanted to vomit but that is a good sign. I need someone in front of me to chase.

In Prestige, Jens Westergren won over Emil Lindgren and Magnus Darvell in an impressive spurt finish. And in the womens class, 9 riders raced which has to be a new record. That was won by Karin Aune. And grattis to Ted Petterson from Mölndals CK for taking 3rd place in Open Mixed Sport.

But now to SuperSpeczialKlass where Mölndals CK were everywhere. Over 40 started and I was a bit confused since the speaker said '2 minutes to start' and then they started right away which meant that I had both feet on the ground and angry people behind me. Bad start indeed. But CC Lasse had it worse since he dropped his chain at the end of the first straight. Still, he managed to finish quite well anyway.

I was keeping up until that gradual hill which is what made today hell for me. I was på rulle with someone from CSK Ludvika until the top but he took off on me in the next part which was pretty easy to ride if you had the line and missed the holes. That was about it for my racing against others.

Lap 2 started okay until the hill and I could just feel the energy draining. I was breathing fast for more than half of the course but I could still see the guy in front and the gap was reasonable so I pushed on. Lap 3 I pushed on more but he seemed to be getting farther away. I had a bit of trouble in the sand but I made it through every time. And overall the CX Pro clinchers at a crazy 4 bar were fine except for a few minor slips in corners. But it was pretty dry.
Bild: Henrik Öijer

Since the course was moving back and forth I could see that Mattias was battling a couple positions ahead of me. I promised I would catch up to him in some race but today was not that race. I was lapped quite late in the race which is probably an achievement of its own. But when they finished I was confused and stopped at the finish. They said to keep going. So I lost about 2 minutes in that confusion and was less than thrilled to take a last lap after I had just made my fastest lap under the assumption that I wouldn't have to take the extra.

So the real last lap was one of those pure exhaustion vomit-feeling sort of laps where I gave it everything I had left. It is amazing that I can still pull out some kind of energy when I feel so dead. Needless to say, I feel pretty dead now too.

The results list skips #38 and #39 for some reason so I will go under the assumption that I was 39th even if the results say 41st. Compared to last year's premier in Norberg which was a similar hilly track, I did better. In Norberg I had a major energy collapse and almost didn't finish. Today I could push through it. So let's call it 'bättre kondition' to be positive.

My expectations are zero for Ludvika tomorrow but I was not going to DNF again in Falun. And even if two people said I could quit if I wanted to and one said something about remembering that this is for fun, I was determined to not DNF.

Since I still have holidays leftover, why not take a Friday off and drive up to Falun during the day? Yep, with all the autumn colours, I have to say that this was a special drive. Anyway, I never did get a chance to test ride those CX Pro tires so even though it was actually snowing here and freakin' cold, I set off from the hotel with about an hour left of daylight.

I pumped the tires to an insane 4 bar because it says 'minimum 4 bar' but that is why I tried it now and not on the start line. The hill up to Lugnet from the centre is bigger than it looks so I was warm by the time I rolled up to the start field. Falu CKs people were hard at work setting up the track so I thought, why not, let's train the real course.

This is the map of the track you can see on the race site here. It starts in the famous Lugnet grusplan which is just as bumpy as always. Tip#1: Find the grove and stay in it. Then it goes up a little grass hill and out to a road part which is very fast. At the end of that are a couple of sharp grass corners so that will be interesting. After that it takes the straight up that gradual hill that hurts after a few laps. Tip#2: There are tons of little rocks in this part.

Then we get to the 'fun' part. They have two ways down the hill. One is gradual and nice and the other is a steep drop. I did the drop twice and it is wild. After that is the sand which worked fine since it was basically frozen but I still got stuck. I know...it's the tires.

If the course wasn't already fun enough, now comes the real fun. Slalom curves up and down a hill in the grass. Even with it hard and frozen I found myself braking a lot and taking the corners too wide. I think races will be decided in this section...especially since the löphinder is on the way up a hill which made dismounts interesting. Then it weaves its way around the usual things at Lugnet until the end of the lap which has a stair section that is pretty steep.

In summary, my two laps were heaven. 4 bar actually worked fantastic and my bike felt light and nice (no saddlebag). I know that tomorrow will be warmer and softer on the ground but at least I have had my test laps and can relax. My other conclusion...this course is perfect to start 2010 Merida Northwave CX Cupen. Come out and watch!

Today my mood has been på topp and obviously that is because it is time for CX Cupen and Falun! Even if I have my old bike and tires that are heavier than my car, I don't care. This will be a great weekend no matter what happens!

There are a few more names on the CSK Ludvika startlist which is good news. And Super Speczial class is now starting before Prestige which is also good. But it looks like we need a plan against Darvell & co since they are still listed in the wrong class. And I have just the plan! No more saddlebag for Chris Cross. I just got a Haglöfs Waitait bag to put my wallet and keys in so that can sit in the back pocket of my shirt. Which means my aerodynamics will be fixed and I will be flying! Yes...this will be perfect...

I think that Super Speczial Klass is causing confusion. The Startlist is now up for the CX race in Ludvika on CSK Ludvika's page and I am confused. First, why are Magnus Darvell and Mattias Nilsson from Team Kalas in SuperSpeczialKlass???

Then noticing that Mölndals CK is responsible for 8 out of the 21 signed up is impressive for us but rather disappointing for the rest of the country. Let's hope that what they released was the preliminary list. If not, we have better turn out at Skatås.

Still no sign of my glue but don't worry...I will not make the joke again. Part of the problem during my ride last night may be the shape of the tires themselves...they are getting as bald as I am.


I happened to be near SportSpec on my way home and I remembered their tire corner. I was going to buy Conti's CX Race but they only had one. So by accident I found the Schwalbe CX Pros you see above. Even with the wire they are only 350g each which is actually less than the Conti foldable. And at 209kr each, why not? They are even only 30mm wide so they are legal under new UCI rules. And with a tread like that I should not be slipping so much.

So this will due for a quick-fix/spare wheel until I can get to some gluing.

Once I gave up on the idea of having my tubulars glued for the weekend, I had some time left over for a bit of training. After readjusting the brakes for the second time this week, it was time to start Wigglecrossen. I felt pretty seg in general yesterday so the Merida felt heavy and slow. I thought that my Shimano RS20 wheels would be better than the 105/Mavic mix which was originally on the bike. But the back felt like it had a wiggle. The braking surface though was much better. After a couple laps at my Sävedalen grass field, I just continued on the road a bit to get the legs going. After flying over the cobblestones in Partille C, I was ready to head home. The wheels are still in one piece so I guess it will be fine.

SMHI says -4C in Falun on Saturday morning so I am actually feeling okay about racing clinchers. It will probably be quite dry. Either way, I should remind myself that I am doing this for fun so there is no reason to stress over this. If I want stress, I have a job.

Yesterday in a moment of the finest Göteborgshumör I wrote that my Vittoria Mastik glue was stuck in the mail. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case. Which sucks since I was all ready to start the gluing. I know that CykelCity has Continental glue but I would rather match the tire brand and glue it once.

If I get it tomorrow, I would have to take a shortcut in the Belgian procedure which almost certainly means I will be racing for 10 minutes in Falun before the rubber is flying in every direction.

Guess I should just accept the fact that I will have to ride clinchers. I do have 1 set of Tufo CX tape left but I don't want to be the guy racing with 1 red tire and 1 black. Or maybe I can just buy some silvertejp and wrap it around. That stuff never falls off. Yes...red and silver for a Christmas theme.

I know I have said that I love Falun but at the same time every race I have done there has been a disaster. My only 2 DNFs ever have been in Falun. And my CX experience there two years ago was full of snow. Has anyone checked the 5-day weather forecast for Falun? Stupidly, I did. Friday night equals -2C which also equals frozen car.

I have given up on making my Ridley premier this week since I spent most of yesterday re-doing what I did wrong on Saturday. And my adjustments seem to give only 8 gears back. So instead I switched attention to my new Vittora Evo XM tires. I ripped off my nicely taped Tufos and stretched on the new tires with unusual ease.

So where is my Vittoria Mastik One glue??? I was supposed to start tonight. I guess it got stuck somewhere along the way? HA! Stuck! =)

Then I changed my clinchers to my Shimano RS20 wheels which are not really for this but look very nice. For some reason the cassette does not quite line up the same as the tubular wheels so I can't use them as an extra set. So now I get to change the tires back to the old ones...yet again. Lovely start to the week.

And so it was time again for Introcross or CRC CX Cupen #2. But with all the fog today, why not just call it Dimmacrossen? (Photos by Mats Harring. See more here). Lasse said today was halktema and I embraced that well with a fine vurpa in one of those grass/hill curves. Lets see what that picture looks like later. The grass was very wet so my stupid tires were rather useless no matter what air pressure I had. But I had to keep quiet about this since Peter was there and the battle to stay out of last place would be brutally serious.



The course today was a mix of everything and tougher than last week so even finishing would be an achievement. The start was okay and things slowed down a lot through the grass corners (see above) but I was with Peter so I didn't mind. My less-than-perfect corner, even if I didn't fall, was enough for Peter to take off a bit but I still passed someone else and started the chase. The plan was to keep about 20m behind and make an attack later on. I passed someone else but I made another small mistake on a gravel corner and started to lose contact. And things were pretty much over when I slid again on that same grass corner and had trouble getting moving again.

Somewhere around the running section I passed Hansen who seemed to be having a tough day. He had also fallen on my grass hill during Introcross. But with him behind and Peter in front, I was motivated to keep up the speed for the whole race. On this lap I watched Peter take a major short cut across the football field but I was not going to start complaining. Afterall, this is for training. And the result would have been the same anyway.

With 2 laps to go I was again trying to close the gap but was held up by almost running into some blind people who were obviously not going to move. =) I was hoping that Peter would get tired and I was gaining maybe 10m per lap but that was not enough. Still, I am satisfied. Peter did say that this was the race of his life and I agree, I had no chance today. But I was not last.



After the race, Patrik pointed out that my saddlebag was probably messing up my aerodynamics and that is why I was slow. He may have a point now that I see the picture...

I have been working away since 14.00 on my CX bike and this was really quite fun. All the wires are on and the gears actually work although they are way off in terms of adjustment. The brakes are on but I haven't adjusted those yet either since I need to use my tubular wheels which are being used tomorrow morning first. Then there is the chain which is too long so I have to buy yet another special tool. So soon I will find out if I have done something completely wrong.

My Vittoria tubdäck are here too and they are lovely! It will be a pleasure to ride on them once I manage the gluing process. But they say minimum 2.5 bar so I think I will listen.

This is my question of the day. Is it possible to get faster at cycling when you grow older? Or does turning 30 and becoming Veteran signal the start of the decline? What do you think? Write a comment below...

My latest negativity, which you may have noticed, is based on having to wait until 5 november to learn my fate. On that day I find out if I get money for a 4-year position. I just missed is last year and my gut feeling is that I am going to just miss it again which will probably mean having to move to find a job. So with that background, the answer to my question is that we get slower or stay the same.

To be fast in cycling, you need to be training while you are a teenager so you develop the muscles. As an adult, it is very hard to build up large muscles in any natural, drug-free way. Just look at me. I basically did nothing except sit in school/university until I was 27. And now at 34, despite many attempts, I am not Mr. Muscle or fast on my bike.

What I do believe is that you can train your muscles for function. My muscles are good for long distance MTB but I have no explosivity at all. Some tell me that the best marathon runners are old men but again I think this is a question of mental training. With age you learn to know your limits and push them. But none of this means you are fast. How many Elite-level athletes have done their Classic? Probably not that many since this is more of a 40-årskris thing. Which is probably why I am starting to think about it.

So I really don't know. If I am improving in CX, it is probably very minor and has more to do with making fewer mistakes during the race than actual speed.

Last night's 1-hour MCK planning meeting lasted 2.5 hours but still it was productive. The details for our CX race are not 100% clear yet but the work is divided. This is the first time in a while where I felt that my English was standing in my way of doing things. There are many parts of race organizing/running which I would love to volunteer for but there are many rules and official things which make me feel intimidated to walk in with my language. Which is a shame. But maybe it is just me who is making the issue out of this. Maybe no one cares. I mean people read this blog in Sweden and it is not very Swedish.

Anyway, the most heated discussion was around the start order. It seems SuperSpeczialKlass is starting last with Prestige in the middle. I can understand the anti-climax argument but at the same time very few from the public are there to watch anyway. I have contacted all of my friends across the country to try and bring some outsiders to watch. Everyone else should do the same.

My ankle feels fine now after running in the rain to Lindome station. But everyone around me is sick at the moment so I have worse things to worry about than a little muscle pain.

At the moment it is probably best to check SCF for the latest dates of the CX races. They may be slower than me but they are more accurate. Still, Google searches somehow bring you to my page first no matter what.

Merida-Northwave CX Cup official page is here but there is more info/inbjudan on the SCF page here.

Also, my ankle seems okay and it certainly is not any worse than before my training last night. It is probably something with my shoes during the day...something stupid.

Because of my sore ankle and general feeling of blää, I decided to skip Hondacrossen tonight and roll around a bit near home. Honestly, I don't know that this was any more calm. It was dry but FAN it still managed to make me very tired.


Part 1 starts in a grass field similar to Hondacrossen except that the whole field is sloped so the houses are about 10m higher than the road. A few laps on this 1.4km course are good for the legs. Then I rode up the hill towards Björndammen which is a pain no matter when you do it. I passed 3 other cyclists on the way up.


Then, at the trail up to Björndammensterassen I found this little gem of a grass football field...completely abandoned. Again, there was a grass hill of about 5 m so a simple zigzag of this became hell quite soon. To make it worse, I added a running section up the hill and a quick MTB-style trail back to complete the 450m loop.

Very effective 50 minutes. Probably I will feel my ankle even more now but after this I think I can just sit on my ass until the weekend and not feel any guilt.

So it seems the rumours were true. CX Cupen's second Stockholm race is cancelled. So now we have to ask ourselves if it is worth driving so far just for a race in Kungsan. I am biased since I have friends in Sthlm/Uppsala so I will probably go anyway. But still it would be better with a double weekend since many are travelling from here or Dalarna.

Guess my budget will work now...

A true sign of age is when you start getting muscle pain and have no clue why you have it. And from yesterday afternoon, I have one of those pains. My left ankle feels not so grand and I have no clue what I did.

Probably I twisted it during Göteborgs Superprestige on Saturday and didn't feel anything until yesterday. It is not the worst possible pain so I am still positive. But I think it is best to ride Sävecrossen tonight instead of Hondacrossen. If I can only last a few minutes, then I can just roll home. This is all probably due to the dismounts. About 1 in 20 times my left clip does not come free smoothly. That is probably the twist.

In other news, my budget will just about manage the CX Cupen races until November. And honestly I expect cancellations since that seems to happen every year. One sure sign is when the invitations don't appear until the week before. Hmm...Ludvika would fit into that category...

I just noticed the first announcement of what could be the premier CX race of the season on 30 okt. Yes, watch out Kungsan...here we come!

STHLM Cyclo Cross is the official name and it is arranged by Cykloteket.

Tävlingen kommer att köras på asfalt, gräs, grus, sand, uppför trappor och över hinder, så för att vinna gäller det att bemästra alla svårigheter.

We also need our cleanest possible uniforms and no style-missar since we are sure to pass Café Opera and NK a few times.

Anyone checking the invitation for Falu CKs prestige cross will notice the differences in race classes. And I applaud SCF for throwing out everything and starting with something completely new.

Open Class: Try out CX with any bike and seems to be a race time of only 20 minutes.
Prestige Class: Any age but when you are lapped you are pulled from the race. Race time around 60 minutes.
Super Class: Any age but no lapping rule. I assume this will be a race time around 40 minutes like veteran last year.

Is this good? It is a start. But first we need to change the name from Superklass to Superspeczialklass because it is sounds more cool and silly. =) The women lose in this but then again there were on average only 4 women per race last season. If they still count them separately, it will be fair for them. If not, I guess I get lapped by Kajsa Snihs.

And that is the potential problem...everyone may take Superspeczialklass at first just to see how it works. But overall this is a good suggestion because we all want to battle against those with equal skill, not equal age.


In other news, things are moving along nicely with the X-Ride. Many are asking me when the big premier race is, partly because joining the Ridley club is a sign of true dedication to CX, at least at MCK.

Today was the start of Introcross with the all important träningstävling. Those of you reading this last year know just what a big deal these races became. But this year I would not say that it is the same yet, probably because there are so many CX Cupen races so the thought of a race every weekend until Christmas is a bit much. But CX is life for me so let's race.

I rode today with 2.5 bar in my tires and that felt perfect most times. It was pretty dry but still the grass had some water leftover for wheel sucking. We practiced starts around a goal post and it was fun to see that glidtackling work well in cycling too.

The race was supposed to be 30 min but CC Lasse's course was a good one so we covered all the usual CX things and didn't have much time for resting. At the start and for the first 100m my body was not really convinced that this was a race. But it was not my worst start because I was able to pass Ted just after the sand. Passing Ted is getting harder and harder. The field was not so spread out and I kept fairly close to Per in the grass sections. But the drop through the mud and then the road bit were enough for him to leave me way behind. Of course I had one of those Merida slides coming off the gravel from 8:an and this understeering is the main reason I wanted a Ridley.

Anyway, I was on my own and when this happens I get tempted to just relax and take it easy. But I could still see the group in front of me so I tried to keep at it. The group was quite spread out at this point but I could see Mattias was closest in front of me but pretty far for me to make any attack. I could also see Tomas and co approaching behind me which was a good thing. With 2 laps to go I gave it everything I had just to avoid being lapped. Taking the sand with speed was a good idea. The grass hurt but even the mud hole went more smoothly with less braking and more pedalling. So by the time I had made it to the slalom part at the start area and then the running hill, it was clear that no one would lap me. Success!

With one lap to go I just decided to keep up the speed for the training value and it was good. I had maybe gained a little bit on Mattias but certainly not enough to pass. But I am satisfied with my performance today.

When blogg legend and CX King Öijer drops by this little page to make a comment, I know that I have said something controversial. No, I didn't diss Falun. I dissed tubulars. I had already come to the right conclusion after sleeping on it last night. One could say that I dreamt of my first ride on CX tubulars and about how smooth and fast it felt. Giving up that would be silly.

So I took Tufo's advice and ordered a set of Vittoria Cross Evo XM. At 390g and 320tpi, those babies should fly through the mud. And to cut costs and speed up delivery, I ordered from England.

I will also use the Belgian gluing method with glue and the Jantex Competition 76 tape which they also sold at that shop. Now all I need is a bucket of Vittoria Mastik. Does any local shop have it like NOW?

But I still wonder about this pressure issue. Öijer suggests 2 bar. Jonas L suggests 1.4-1.7 bar which sounds very extreme. I am 72 kg so I think I should stay about 2 bar. What do you use? Skriv gärna...unless this is top secret info or something.

I am sure you have seen the good news on Mölndals CKs page. Introcross is here. Or rather Criterium Race Coffee CX Cupen 2010 if you prefer the UCI-approved name. Personally, I like to call this Göteborgs Superprestige.

Whatever you call it, come to Skatås tomorrow at 10.00 and see for yourself. Cool invitation is here or the text version is here.

Isn't the tattoo great?