As you know, on Mondays I am usually pretty down and tired from my weekend of training/racing. But today I felt just fine. Well, until I checked my bank account. December is the month where money tends to fly away quite quickly but all I have done for the last week is eat. I am not eating THAT much but apparently it was enough to be shocking to the balance. This was a pretty heavy bill month in general but the difference is all of those silly things I have to pay now. Like tonight when there is the work Christmas dinner. Last year we had to pay for our own drinks and I pissed away 250kr on a single glass of red wine which was not even good. That bothers me. Then you have banks that like to take their annual credit card fees around this time. Yes, Merry Christmas. A couple more of these surprises and I will be living on Euroshopper noodles by the end of the week...

My day started with this lovely picture. No wonder people were staring at me and my bike. But will 10cm of snow stop us today? No way!

Lasse and Jonas succeeded again in setting up a wonderful earlyLuciacrossen course. Today's snow was different because underneath was not grass so grip was more of a problem this time. On my test lap, I (and everyone else) went full speed into a short hill with deep snow only to discover that our front wheel stopped dead. This is Chris Cross Air informing you that the emergency exits are rakt fram directly over the handlebars... It's been awhile since I have done that and it felt good that I could land in a pile of snow.

Today's real pain was the SPD pedals and actually any type of pedals. The only one who escaped this pain was Ted and I suspect that Tomas was involved in some shady business here. Afterall, last week he brought a friend who sat på rulle behind me and passed at the finish. This was opposite today. Ted had a great start and I didn't since I could not get my shoe clipped. I took many chances and could catch up to Ted at the end of every straight but as soon as I had to get off and clip in again, he took off and left me pounding my foot on my pedal.

The longer we went the more I was sliding like hell. One classic was when I jumped back on the bike and slid right off again. I also managed to slide in the corner where Aase was warming the glögg (Tack Aase!). Boy did I feel like heading into the depå for a drink but I waited till the end. Others seemed to be spread out all over and Mattias was in first until Björn took over for the last lap. And no I didn't get in anyone's way this time.

This was a lot of fun but and very technical and my legs feel strong when I can actually use them. Today was not one of those days. Again, I haven't felt fast since our CX Cupen race and it would be nice to have that feeling again this season. Let's see if the deep south will be warm and sunny for us.

Looks like we have gotten ourselves a healthy pile of snow overnight and that is great news! Cross Lasse and Jonas have probably worked out a nice little track for earlyLuciacrossen and this extra snow will mean snöhalka which is way more fun than ishalka. And the temperature is 0C which is like summer so I am more than psyched to start loading the car to slide my way over to Mölnlycke. Oh, and soon it is time to do just that. Yippee!

Now I have pretty much guaranteed myself a last place at Luciacrossen tomorrow. Or maybe using my muscles today is good? Probably, if I had been cycling and not skiing. I went again to Partille golfbana and today there were lots of people but not enough to make it actually crowded. The track was maybe a bit better than the other day since we had a couple cm of snow. But it was still quite slow snow.

Had my first fall of the season today but it was a slow speed thing where I kind of tripped over myself. This will happen a lot. I still haven't put a proper dose of glide wax on since I was hoping for more training effect but even with that it didn't feel like I was way out of breath. Under those conditions I can go on forever. And after 2 laps (about 15km) it was more my muscles that had had enough, not my heart.

I saw our dear friend Sven, designer of CX Cupen's best staircase. He has been home with his family sick so I could not convince him to try a bit of CX tomorrow. But he had superb skate technique so I am sure I will see him around in the snow again. The other thing I was a bit surprised about is that women actually ski. This probably sounds silly but cycling is a gubbsport and there are hardly ever women around. But skiing is almost opposite. Maybe we just need more women-specific bikes in this country.

Based on the time it took to do 15km today, Öppet Spår will take a little under 12 hours. But in my own defence, there were quite a few parts today where you had to stop and walk around rocks and things. So hope is not lost yet...

All day that silly De cross gaat door song has been repeating in my head and I apologize if the same has happened to you. Our Göteborgs Superprestige song is going to be much better. We can get one of those Bagges to write us something catchy but still relevant. A little love song since we all love this sport so much.

But to keep our costs down we should bring in one of those Idol people that didn't make it so far. Wasn't there some smiley happy girl from Lerum that just missed the Friday finals? (Edit: Madeleine Finck-Björgen is her name) She can sing our song. And while we are starting the creative process, we need some cool CX clips from our battles. In other words, someone should bring a videocamera on Sunday.

Seriously, Sunday's early Luciacrossen is going to be great and I hope that everyone will stop by Mölnlycke. For the map, check the MCK forum page.

Seriously, if I keep mentioning skiing I will lose all of my loyal CX readers. Philip posted this link in a comment earlier so, fine, I will post it.

If you try really hard and ignore the beautiful woman singing, there is quite a bit of lovely winter CX riding and a nice vurpa that took out Sven Nys. But they had way less snow compared to what is waiting for us on Sunday in Mölnlycke.

If that Belgian Superprestige can have their own song, why can't we? Who would like to write our Göteborgs Superprestige song? And then we need a singer.

Last night I checked around Youtube a bit for some tekniktips on skiing. Maybe I am not so far off.

This is a clip from a lesson by Elin Ek that makes me feel more that I just need to become efficient at my method and not learn entirely from nothing. Diagonalåkning I can do to some extent but if I get going to fast I lose balance and fall over. Maybe I should film that and put it on Youtube. Stakning is what felt most natural to start with so that is fine. But I can't say I have done stakning med frånskjut on purpose before.

So things feel slightly more possible...

Looking back at what I wrote yesterday, I can't help but laugh. It sounded like I was an absolute natural at skiing. But that is a load of crap since my technique was horrible and I was hardly moving. And maybe at the time I felt like Petter Northug during my stakning parts but, nej, I think he would take me in a sprint. Perhaps the strangest thing is my träningsvärk in places that make no sense. Yes...I need to join a ski club right away.

By buying rullskidor I have guaranteed that it will be this cold in Göteborg for the rest of the year. If I had bought new skis, we would have rain and 4C. That's how things work. After reading that Partille Golfbana in Öjersjö had 6km of half-decent trails, I knew it was time to make that premiere.

I have not been skiing for about 5 years and when I was skiing I was quite useless. Since then I have been training MTB and running so pulling the skis out of the bag was quite a step. They are pretty scratched and very cheap but oh well. I only put kick wax on since I was not too eager to fly along out of control.

So there I was on the skis and the first thing I could see was that the trail went downhill and there were no tracks. So I took off the skis, walked down and started there instead. Once I got going and could feel that I actually had balance, things got better. But I have absolutely useless technique. The snow was soft so I could slow down on hills and going uphill was fine since I had no glide wax.

It was basically dark and the tracks seemed to be going around every hole of the golf course so I ended up taking a bit of a shortcut. Honestly, I had no idea where I was but it was clear that the small hills all over made this a pretty good workout. Well, it would have been a good workout if I had any speed at all. Now I just have sore shoulder muscles. Anyway, eventually I saw the parking lot. So what about that hill I chickened out on? Well, I ended with that instead and it went wonderfully.

While you are warming up the bredband waiting for that other Superprestige, why not read about today's Introcross and Göteborgs Superprestige. It was nice to see some new faces but quite a few others were missing. I hope that my post did not discourage anyone. I was just pointing out how cold it was. And tomorrow in GP you will probably be able to read skiers complaining about reckless and crazy cyclists...that was us. =)

I did take my Ridley and for the hundreds of you visiting this page via searches for Ridley X-Ride I can add this little review...it is fantastic in the snow! So much more stable than my MTB in fact. Today's warmup was to ride through the deepest part (15cm) and see how far we could go. It was like sand yet somehow I could make it through this with some skillful steering and solid pedalling. The two with MTBs certainly had trouble there. But still my smygträning in snow has paid off a bit.

The lap for the big race was a bit shorter but Lasse added a part where we had to climb over 5 little sand hills and then run through the sand...seriously fun. While we were preparing for this, Karlsson provided some entertainment while practicing falling in snow corners.

My start was fine and the two on the MTB were behind me and Patrik was just in front. Everyone was taking it a bit easy on the first lap since there were no real grooves to drive in but I was having no trouble with grip yet. I caught up in the long grusväg part and had a fairly comfortable gap back but it was growing in front of me. The part around the field was not really working for me and I was sliding so my speed was lost. I saw Patrik pass Mattias who had some chain trouble but after that sand section they really took off.

Lap 2 was pretty much the same and I could see that he was gaining in that part around the field and the trail/hill after the sand but I could open up the gap in any of the technical parts. By Lap 3 I was pretty tired and he was basically på rulle by the end so I calmed down a bit to save some energy for the spurt. He didn't try to pass on the long grusväg section and not at the löphinder either since there were a few corners. He didn't even try on my weakest part around the field and I was really sliding since I was stressed. Over the hills and sand and I was a bit ahead so that he didn't try and pass on the hill. I was doing well this time. But in the last straight section he made his move and I tried to answer but he had about 10m on me by the time the snow/grass started. I kept up well but a slight slip meant I was just a bit far away to answer.

Nope, no little win for Chris Cross but this is still the most fun I have had on this bike. In a normal situation that guy on the MTB would have been way ahead of me but my CX experience meant that I could stay in the race. But I really need to work on the general speed. TC is probably the only answer...

Cross Karlsson posted on the MCK forum that anyone staying home tomorrow because of the cold are not riktiga Göteborgscrossare. I suppose that means I have to go if I want to still be called Chris Cross. In the event of an asthma attack, the fastest can take me to the hospital.

But my point of the post there was to inform everyone that we cyclists are not terribly welcome at Skatås right now. I received so many mean looks today while I was slowly and politely riding my bike passed people. It's like some kind of 'grumpy virus' has spread around the city. And skiers become furious when you walk in skidspår so riding our bikes through them will be much worse.

Anyway, I will be there in my 'cross lite' form with just one bike and really nothing else except every piece of clothing I can find. -5C and snow is what it says now...better than -7C and windy like today.

It looked very warm in Koksijde for the world's greatest CX course full of sand. Can't we have a bit of that now? I rode to Skatås on the MTB just to actually see if I could stand this cold. After only 30 minutes I was completely frozen in every part of my body except my legs (windproof ski pants). I have never needed to buy any winter clothes for the bike and it doesn't matter how many layers I pile on. This was very unpleasant. This is metal-cracking temperature. I had stopped taking my allergy medicine but what I just felt is on the way to an asthma attack. Bad news.

Tomorrow we have Göteborgs Superprestige or Introcross at 10.00 but I will see what I do about that. I may just make a quick stop on my MTB for socializing. Unless tomorrow the UCI will allow my slightly wider than 32mm MTB tires and brakes that actually work in snow.

Those of you living in Mölndal are probably way ahead of me on this topic. But I will write in anyway for everyone else. The Norwegian sports store XXL has just opened in Sisjön and if you believe the ads, this is like no other sports store in Sweden. That sounds good. When you look at the 3 Stadium stores in central Göteborg and see that they have absolutely nothing other than baggy clothes and jackets (actually, those are gone now too), a change sounds good. But out in Sisjön they have a Stadium XL so let's make a comparison.

XXL first reminds you of Media Markt and that is a good sign. Media Markt has so much choice even if they never seem to have anything in stock. XXL's shoe section is bigger than a typical Stadium store and the prices look very good. If you want the exact latest model, go to Löplabbet. The same is true when you get to the jacket section. If you don't care about a particular brand, XXL is great. If you want something like Peak Performance, Stadium XL is a better choice. XXL had a section for fishing and also hunting. They had an impressive number of tennis rackets also. These things you won't find in Stadium XL but you will find them in a specialty store. Their ski section was actually quite disappointing but still better than most stores. So my conclusion is that XXL is better than most sport stores and is good as a '1-stop' shop if you don't have time to visit your local specialty store. It will do well but true athletes will probably stick with be loyal to their local stores or shop online.

In terms of skis, Stadium XL was the big winner today in terms of my money. Their Vasaloppsveckan is on until Sunday and you get 20% off. I bought a set of One Way Classic 5 rullskidor for an amazing 950kr but then I learned that Salomon has changed their bindings in the past 5 years so my current shoes will not work with anything I can buy now. So I will need to buy shoes anyway before I can write a report about me falling. Hope you can wait patiently for that.

But now it is time for Mölndals CKs Christmas party...the perfect way to end a week!

It looks like I managed to get through the entire day yesterday without writing an entry here. Wow! Things have been busy again at work since now that I can start new things. Then we are also holding a course next week so I have to make a lecture and dazzle the students with my knowledge of variously-shaped plastic boxes and how this has any relevance for medicine...

Some training would be nice but outside is one of those frustrating times. They cleared the 5cm of snow so it is just ice leftover which makes cycling less fun. Running is not fun either but that is true any time. Skiing would be fun but the closest trail with snow is Alingsås and it is dark already. Suppose I should use my Sportlife membership for something useful.

I was very surprised today to get a positive letter at work. After applying endlessly in September and reading the word 'Avslag' over and over, of course it is surprising to get one that doesn't say 'Avslag'. So this will cover me until the end of April 2011 which is fantastic news! I have also heard some hints that more money is on the way but I will not believe any gossip. When I have a letter, then I believe.

So now I have no excuse to miss Öppet Spår. Other than the fact that I am useless at skiing. =)

The thing about working at a place called Medicinareberget is the daily climb up a large hill and serious set of stairs...excellent for 08.00 konditionsträning. And slightly adventurous in the 2cm snökaos of today. But this is also a nasty way of testing how much träningsvärk I have. And the answer today is not so much. Excellent!

On the topic of stairs, no other CX Cupen race has yet to match the deathtrappor we had at Mölndalscrossen. What a thigh-burner that was. Hope they are still around for next year.

Yep...no big surprise here. Running yesterday = paralysis today. But it is not the worst I have felt. I also have some mild stiffness in my shoulders and upper back so perhaps this whole stavlöpning thing has some benefit. Still, I don't think I can avoid rullskidor if I expect to have any chance of finishing.

Finally I feel like my TV-avgift has gone to some quality TV. Tonight I discovered a gem of show called Finska fenomen which explores the wild and crazy sports they have over in Finland.

Here are some links to SVTPlay so you can enjoy the first 4 episodes yourself...

Episode 1: Nakenmil

Episode 2: Kärringkånk

Episode 3: Sommarpilkning

Episode 4: Träskfotball

Hmm...could this be a way to make running more fun?

Yes, what to do when the forecast says rain and I have 90 minutes free. Well, I did some MTB yesterday so why not try something different? I hate running but I am not so bad at it so that was the choice. I also brought along my stavgång poles for the hills. After about 5 minutes of decent running I felt like I was about to die so this became a stavlöpning pass instead. I have never been terribly co-ordinated so the best I could manage was a jogging pace with the poles. But actually it felt pretty useful.

Up the hill to Furulund and the 7.5km trail today since I was 'only jogging' and did not really feel tired. But over this pass of around 12.5km total I worked up some decent pain in my arms which made me actually think that this might help for Vasaloppet training. Rullskidor would probably be more fun but they are 3000kr while I have the poles already. For 3000kr I can take a weekend trip to a place with snow and ski for real. But before that trip I should probably get some waterproof running shoes. This was wet today.

So this should give me some nasty träningsvärk for the next couple of days...

After a quick tire switch from my insane Race Kings to my more grippy Speed Kings, I added 2.5bar and went out to see how much I could slide around. I was hoping to beat the salt truck and I just managed that. The little roads over through Sävedalen were full of squished snow and it was slippery as hell. Nothing says 'Duhhh' like Chris Cross out riding a bike in the snow. But once I got over to the Skatås area and 8:an, it was more fun.

Most of the trail had been walked on and that was making it very bumpy for my back. But this is the best training for balance that I can think of. The whole freakin ride was me trying to keep balance. Wonderful.

After a side trip over to Rv 40 and greeting 2 other MTB cyclists and one on a CX, it was time to stop here for a sandwich.

No, this is not the finest pic of me. In fact, this is probably when my left shoe was completely submersed in ice-cold water.

After this came 'Dagens fråga' when a guy asked if I had changed to vinterdäck and I proudly said 'Nej!'. If this had been frozen snow, then I would need dubbdäck but that would have ruined all the fun today. And it has been awhile since I have had so much fun on my MTB.

When I got to the battleground for our Göteborgs Superprestige, I found a completely untouched field of snow. Riding in this kind of snow is heaven. So much heaven that I rode back and forth with a big smile on my face. I even tried a few corner slides and took the expected falls but why not...snow is very soft. Snow and sand together is not quite so fun though.

This became a distanspass that was not really long in actual distance but was 2 hours and 15 minutes in time. And that is about how long it would have taken to drive each way to Jkpg.

This is going to be an entry full of TLA's or 3-letter acronyms. Right now I am supposed to be taking my test lap in the snow over in Jkpg and generally enjoying the social atmosphere that is CX Cupen. But sometimes things go shite.

I overslept a bit and was loading my car at 09.30 and also clearing off a good 5 cm of wet snow. Good thing I had the vinterdäck put on yesterday. Bad thing that I haven't had time to actually use them before the snow came. They are odubbade which is fine for the snöslaskblää we get in Gbg but they are useless on ice. And ice is what SMHI was warning for.

My car has no TLA's like ESP or ASR to keep me on the road when things slide. In fact, I don't even have ABS brakes. So this is old school driving. And after some practice it is fine but today I felt like a certain Disney character in the wet snow. After a crazy 30 minutes of driving I was only at Bollebygd and decided to stop and decide if this was really worth it. A coffee would make that decision easier, tänkt jag. And that 20kr kaffe/bulle deal was enough for my Statoil card to be rejected. Lovely. This day is getting better and better.

So I decided to turn around and head home. If I really had to, I would have continued. And if I had already been in Jkpg I would have raced. But driving there and back in this slask/snö crap was nothing that felt terribly intelligent today.

Now I am home and can take a little winter tour on my MTB instead and then watch GVA CX this afternoon. I can have my own CykelFest here...

Tomorrow marks the end of a true marathon of CX-cupen races. History is already made since we have never had this many in one season before. AND...we still have 4 more races after this weekend. Cross is here to stay! Of course after this weekend we get two weeks of Göteborgs Superprestige. They are just as serious but I don't have to drive so far.

But my next phase is what I need to think about. Should I keep up the CX right through New Year and take a shot at Masters VM in January before it heads off to the US forever? Or should I spend all my time on rullskidor preparing for Öppet Spår? Or maybe I can just eat my way through December and the holidays just to take a break. Which do you vote for?

I just looked at SMHI's forecast for Jönköping on Saturday. Snow and -1C. Excellent. Halkfest continues.

Of course I will have my car's tires changed tomorrow since halkfest on Rv 40 is not quite so entertaining.

It is a beautiful sunny day today and I am not at work so my mood is way way up because I can actually enjoy a little trip to the sea. I can't help but think back to last weekend and the epic CX adventures at Kumlacrossen and Ramundercrossen. It is going to be tough to pick my favourite track this year since we have seen so many great candidates.

Looking ahead to Jönköping and Östercykelcrossen, I wonder what this rejäl backe will be and whether there will be another 3 just like it. I decided also just to race and return rather than stay over and go to CykelGalan or Cykelmässan. I was hoping to manage everything but it could be nice to have some money for Christmas.

Hallå from a more cheerful Chris Cross! Like I said, Monday is always bad after a weekend of racing but now I am back to normal again.

I noticed a lot of photographers taking pictures of moi on both days but I still haven't seen any. I will take all pics...even the ones where I look silly or in pain. Because we may not have another weekend of that much mud again so it would be fun to remember it.

Send any pics or links to me tack...