Despite my continued frustration over car shopping, I managed to have an absolutely brilliant MTB pass today! It was actually just my usual Tahult-Härkeshult-Jonsered route but Ränneslättsturen has had some training effect. I was strong the whole way around, even up the first hill of death at the Furulund running trail and even on the slow painful ones later on. And the monster hill after the little bridge was nothing today. I attacked it with confidence. Dagens lera came after I turned left onto Knipavägen where they are obviously removing some trees. Partille kommun is mad when it comes to tree removal. So this part was enough to cover myself with mud before heading down to Jonsered and the motvind back to home.

I have to use this positive energy for something. I feel another CX session coming. Especially since my pedals/vevparti are all but falling off now. I fix. And while I fix I CX!

I have been in Oslo the last couple of days but more on that later. I am still thinking about cars and what to do and it never gets any easier. No matter what I choose I will dive head first into debt at a point when I was just getting out of debt.

The Honda Civic does fit all of my criteria but there is a difference in down payment of 10000kr compared to the Opel Corsa and that stings. The dealer that has all the Corsas also has some 1-year old cars of various models which would mean an almost new car and pretty good value. Oh, and to all of you suggesting an Aygo/C1/107, the only ones available right now are 3 years old and high mileage.

Normally I would just say 'life is short...just do it' and go for the cool Civic but my stomach is not with me on that idea.

I did not want to spend vacation time on car issues but I have no choice. After some asking round it is clear that no one can ever win the used car game so it is time to just buy new and be done with it. The following are my criteria of what a car has to be before I will buy it...

1. New
2. Well under 200000kr
3. Automatic (trust me, it is better for everyone else too)
4. As cool as possible
5. Practical enough to hold my bikes inside
6. Not white, silver or beige

These 6 things reduce the choice a hell of a lot unless I prefer ordering from the factory and waiting a minimum of 3 months. I am not at that stage yet. So which cars in greater Göteborg meet the first 3 requirements?
Kia Picanto - not big enough for my bike and far from cool
Fiat 500 - again too small and very cool except only in white and silver
Fiat Punto - good size but non-metallic white and very crap interior
Peugeot 308SW - bigger than a whale and I know what these are like after 2 years
Mitsubishi Colt - again with the non-metallic white and they have killed the design
Mazda 2 - this was highest on the list for a bit even the only one available is beige but they are everywhere and I have seen two actually broken down

So then we have the serious list...
Opel Corsa - rated by TopGear as the best car you don't want. It is so boring outside but quite comfy inside. Has an 85 bhp eco engine which saves a grand a year on taxes but is rather unexciting to drive.
Citroen C4 - Really only a few kr under the top price and quite the comfy midsized car. They had black and red which are both fine but compared to the supercool DS3 sitting next to it, somehow it seemed like a waste of money. Plus the inspection stats for 3 year old ones are well under the Germans and the eco engine was a bit small for the size of the car.
Honda Civic - I think this may be the winner. They had 5 automatics, one in each colour. The summer sale brings it into the price range and you can't get any cooler. The designers must have went mad. The engine is a 1.8L which means higher gas costs but a lot more power.

But still it is quite depressing to come to the conclusion that the Honda Civic is the best available option. There have been 5 Civics through the years in my family and two are still in service. But the Canadian version is a sedan which is ugly som fan so I could satisfyingly say to my sister that my Civic is cooler than yours.

So now I need a few days to think whether I want to dive head first into a loan at a time when I do not need a loan. It would save my cycling season...

Sorry if my updates are not right after my adventures. That can happen during summer when you are either not connected all the time or just simply are too lazy to make that effort. Last night was more laziness.

I had an hour and wanted the most effective training possible so for some reason I threw on my running shoes. It was hot last night so this was a good idea for the first few minutes but once I was up the hill to the appropriately-named Puketorp I was wondering what I was thinking. Once I started on the forest trails I felt great dodging in and out of the trees.

Having no functioning car has forced a temporary retirement from cycling and I am trying not to get seriously upset about that. I checked on a rental car for Grenserittet and they charge 1250kr EACH time you cross the border. Halden is 5km into Norway so that feels like a ripoff.

So now I need to mention the term cykelglädje because my MTB will be used for making me happy. But this means more CX which makes me happy AND sore.

Now that I finally have some vacation plans in the works, I can write what is actually Part 1 of my little tennis experience. I had just entered the area and walked into some exhibitors hall and saw a small crowd of people just standing there. Like any curious being I walked over and had a peak over the crowd and suddenly I had eye contact with #1 ranked tennis player Caroline Wozniacki. A fine start to the day.

For those of you living in a cave (or Knivsta), Caroline is from Denmark and her parents are from Poland and are actually still training her. She has been ranked #1 on the WTA tour for 37 weeks and at home is more popular than, well, anyone. I had read a few articles which all talked about something magical while watching her play. Apparently she inspired some guy to write an entire book about one of her key matches. And there are always groups of around 5 middle-aged men in the crowd cheering her on (yes, they were in Båstad also). So when I saw an ad that she would be playing at Swedish Open, I had to see for myself.

We start with a clip from her first match in Båstad where Alizé Cornet seems to have left her phone on. The smile says it all. Every other player I saw there was annoyed constantly, so much that one wonders why they are playing tennis at all if they get so upset. Caroline enjoys it. And her style of play is enjoyable to watch since she has this perfect precision to place the ball in the back corners right on the line and has the skill to have her opponent running all over the place. And for those of you interested in grunts, I can report on that since I was sitting about 10 m away. It starts very softly and increases until she hits the ball but there is no outcry like her Russian counterparts. This is efficiently directly the energy at the ball and not any method to mess up her opponent.

And then during her second match against Sofia Arvidsson she just all of a sudden could not serve. There was no real sign of injury/trauma to her arm other than the entire set she had just played. But her trainer did one of those quick arm checks and I recognized the result. Shoulder problems. I still have shoulder problems...bitch of an injury. So she stopped playing since Båstad is hardly the place to kill yourself to win. But watching the clip above from 2009 when she was climbing the ladder will show you that she is a fighter. Aj what a painful clip. Solid muscle cramps are what characterize an MTB marathon, especially in Norway where they have real hills. But you fight on.

Which brings me back to cycling again. Why do elite cyclists quit as soon as they are a bit behind? I never quit and the organizers have to pull me off the course before I will. And that is why, to this day, I still think that a finish is higher ranked than any DNF.

My motivation is rock bottom after hearing yesterday that I can't actually rev my engine very much or the whole exhaust will fall off the car. Then another place confirmed that it is worth 5000kr and said to not put any money into it at all. So that's it. I have no car.

This morning I just went out for my usual ride up to the running trail at Furulund and over to Kåsjön and despite lack of motivation my muscles felt strong. With a week of återhämtning that should be no surprise. The rain has left all those nice smooth grusväg full of tricky grooves and holes so now this is full-on MTB in addition to serious hills. I am trying to make some kind of last-minute vacation plans since this feels like a waste of work holidays...

Before I post the second part of my tennis adventures I thought I would update you on my car issue. I went over to Vianor which had some kind of free inspection before you book any time. They lifted up the car and my day was suddenly ruined. There is rust everywhere. Apparently it is leaking a bit of oil and essentially all of the exhaust is rusted.

They are doing a temporary fix for 600kr which will just seal the exhaust enough to have it inspected. They suggest inspection since that will say what I have to do. But it was clear that they suggest replacing the whole exhaust.

What has been bothering me is the sentimental value since this is my first car. But if it leaks oil I can't leave it parked anywhere and it will just rust away completely. Walking home I just stopped into Bilia to ask what a rough figure of what they would pay for it as a trade-in. They said max 5000kr.

So Sid is worth more than my car. Fan! Screw the sentimental value. I have no choice but to let them insult me with a few kr. On the positive side I have to get meself a relatively new car. Can I afford it? Well, no. But if I leave it any longer I risk CX season and being stuck with a pile of metal worth less than GP.

So, I have just been on one of those spontaneous trips that are always superb. Too bad that the flying along the E6 has left my car with a roaring noise and a nasty smell. So much for Dalarna.

Right, so while we are all involved in the rather posh sport of cycling, I thought I would go and check out the most posh sport of all...tennis. When I first moved here I was playing quite a bit and even took some lessons but I never really found anyone equal. So after several near castration attempts and general frustration with getting beaten so bad, I started cycling...where I also get beaten badly.

Anyway, the Swedish Open in posh little Båstad is an example of something fantastic when people put some time and money into sport. Just like Ulricehamn for skiing or Falun for MTB, it is possible to bring the world to little Sweden. Just check out their Hotel Skansen where you can have a little conference and fix your own tennis tournament.

Watching tennis live is really something special. Essentially the players don't want you there and seem to have so much difficulty concentrating that they lose their whole game if someone sneezes. Then there is the ref sitting up there on the podium. One had this deep voice which said 'Game' in a way that made you think he was a commentator. And I loved how they would just turn to the crowd and say 'Quiet please' over and over. It creates such a strange atmosphere. The crowd wants to clap but if they clap too much they get yelled at. It's crazy!

Yes, and why I decided on these two days to visit...well...I am single so I don't need to justify choosing women's tennis. The question, you may ask, is whether they do grunt as much as in this clip?

Well, to some extent the answer is yes. Since you are sitting so close to the court and it is so quiet, you hear everything. The French players were quite happy to yell out a few 'putain' or 'merde' when they messed up and your dear local hero Johanna Larsson has a temper also. Here is a nice temper clip...


I can fully understand the grunts. In fact, that tells me they are trying. To see just how hard they hit that ball is seriously impressive and if that grunt gets an extra 30 km/h on their service, well, why not?

Well, now I am on vacation and I thought of a spontaneous little trip down to Skåne today. I didn't want to mention anything negative in my race report the other day because I was in such a good mood. But on the drive home I could hear the hole in the exhaust getting larger and larger. So I have no clue if I will be heading up to Falun now.

The worst part is that the inspection is coming up so essentially I fix it or its körförbud. But investing any money in a car which is worth nothing is never fun. And with its lovely sound now it really is worth nothing.

On this historic day not only did I actually make it to Eksjö but I also started and finished Ränneslättsturen, the most technical långlopp I will do this year. The start went fast and people were just flying along the grusväg and I was trying my best to keep up. I felt bad and was not terribly fast but I made it through Sträcka 2 without too much trouble despite constant noise from the jävla vevparti. Food stop #1 with the first Squeezy gel. I didn't drink so much which was stupid but I did from there on.

Sträcka 3 was the worst for me but I felt okay after the food. The singletrack at Bastabergen was so jobbig och dryg that I will officially call it Ica Stig. It got better after that but it seemed to take a long time before Food Stop #2 and just before that was quite tragic because someone had a heartattack. They got it going again but us gubbar need to watch.

While I was drinking and enjoying the break and another Squeezy gel, Kristina and Bernt rolled up. I knew they would catch up because I was useless. And they left before I finished my gel so I had to battle my way to catch up to them. Like it says in the banbeskrivning the next part was their training course and it was so jävla rolig with those up and down parts. It reminded me a lot of Mörksuggan although the one there is better.

I could see that Kristina was having it tough and it got worse since hip troubles made the last 30km horrible. But she finished as the hero of the day! Anyway, I felt great so at the point just before the tunnel under the road I said 'you guys will likely catch up again later' and I made my attach. That was a good section for this since it was easy and flat so I could fly. And again with 25km left there was a road section so I could again take off.

By the time I reached the Skidstugan part my cramp monster was growing in my knee and that 2.9km section was pretty crappy. The 'hills' were not really bad and I was always on the middle klingan but just that section was tougher. Food stop #3 was taken quite fast since I didn't want anyone to catch up. New Squeezy gel and a full bottle of Enervit for the last 19km.

Sträcka 6 was fairly nice and I kept a steady pace but there was one hill I had to get rid of someone I had been following for too long. Something I have been training is to keep going after a long hill since most take a break and slow down. So my first try worked so well that he was gone...very gone behind me. This is the point when I usually get confused with the signs because I was not sure if the sign I saw was 15km or 10km. Turns out it was 10km which is good because I was in the process of flying and took any chance I could to pass since those around looked rather dead. I was not exactly full of energy either and my stomach was starting the cramp game but at the 5km sign it was time.

You will know from the past that I go all in during the last 5km because there is nothing to lose. But this was a nasty 5km. From 5-4km I passed 3 people and made another of those uphill passes. 4-3km was pretty bad overall so I just tried to keep moving. Somewhere in 3-2km I passed one more guy on an uphill and had a nice lead but from 2-1km he was behind me. I did not want any spurt because I had been killing myself so I had to choice but to get my lead before.

I was on fire at this point and did actually lose him before the trail ended and it was just a smalö road up to the start area. I looked back and saw that he was nowhere but decided, fan, why stop now. Spurt the whole freakin way around the finish area and flying across the line. Then I was dead.

The results are up now and it seems this took me 4:51:35 which is progress. Under 5 hours would have been my goal if not for the bad luck associated with this race. When I think about 2009 Billingeracet which took 5:22:54 for the same length, this feels like quite an improvement.

After a crappy start, this was one of my best långlopp in terms of how I felt and how I arranged the energy. And since everything else I do will be less technical, you can't ask for better training. So I am more than satisfied!

You can write your own race report under the comments if you want. It would be nice to hear how it went for the rest of you...

I have said many times that this is a notorious bad luck race for me. I have tried to do it 3 times and have actually never managed to start. I woke up this morning feeling like crap but now I am okay. And I seem to have a hole in my exhaust so for the moment I am Raggarbil Chris. But I am ready. This was supposed to be a hotel in Jönköping but it is some jävla camping and a stuga. But it was very cheap. Sorry for not including anyone of you in the travel plans but you know how it is with me getting to races. I am not reliable.

But now I have been to Eksjö (lovely centre by the way) and have my number because it is like 45 minutes from Jkpg. So now I am sitting in the camping restaurant where the wifi is trying to write to you about race plans.

The have divided the race into 6 sträckor and it is safe to say that I will be brilliant for Sträcka 1 which is the 1km masterstart. =) This time I will probably go against my normal tendency to take it easy at first. Sträcka 2 is essentially grusväg so there is no reason to hold back. And Sträcka 3 for the most part also sounds okay. I know I am going to lose more time when it gets to the more technical Sträcka 4 and 5 but that is only 16 km. So my real plan will be to just take it easy and keep moving in these parts. Because this is normally the type of section I do lose a lot of time. By Sträcka 6 and the 10km remaining signs I will be running on pure motivation as usual.

In terms of energy plans I will be running mostly on Squeezy gels with filling of Enervit drink and a few splashes of water. The fact that there are only 3 stops is perfect so there is no reason to hang around. But do take something at the first. Trust me. You won't feel like you need it but it will help you later.

So maybe I will see a few of you tomorrow?

How fitting to have my 666th entry on the weekend where Göteborg becomes the centre of metal. Iron Maiden tonight and then the Big 4 on Sunday. Rock on! But before we do I am happy to announce that I am healthy, rested and damn eager to race some MTB. Any other time I have tried to do Ränneslättsturen I have had something bad happen. So now I will challenge bad luck again and finally do this. My super secret race plan is in the works.

But first lets get back to this 666 thing. I am no expert in death metal but Down in Black by Mustasch is harder than Bohusgranit.

And this 666th entry has to have a bit of In Flames. Other suggestions could be Entombed or if you are boring and haven't heard Metallica a million times then they could also work.

Actually, I don't wanna be sedated. But I am. I had a very bad sleep on Monday then WTAI where I seem to have gotten a sunburn on parts of the top of my head. I haven't really caught up yet. Probably some would say that it has something to do with the Col de Tournament of work I need finish by tomorrow so I can take some vacation. But I have that under control.

Nej, I am going to sleep a lot tonight. Now that I have my mind set on Ränneslättsturen and the weather looks perfect for it. Gone with this sleepiness...be gone!

When I read Björn's article for Magasin Åre I immediately wanted to jump on the CX and tackle some mud. But there is no mud now. It is too hot for CX.

By now most of you have realized that I am not putting so much effort into MTB XC races. I will do my 4 marathons and whatever happens is fine. Every 90 min or 2hr pass I take around here is preparing my legs for CX but also keeping my mind fresh. I don't need to stress about this. But when CX season comes I will make the practices even if I need to start work at 07.00.

Cross is life! Chris Cross is ready!

I was at Where the Action Is yesterday trying to adapt my body to both sun and heat (and beer). That went quite well. Highlights for me were Glasvegas and Royal Republic but we can take the music tips later on.

The weather for Eksjö on Sunday looks to be around 20C and a bit of rain. Of course the forecast changes a whole lot. I will just say that I would rather race Ränneslättsturen in 20C than 32C. Rain also means I can blame my slow time on mud. =)

In a way it is good to start a week like this. It is Monday and I can blame my slö and dead feeling on training. Wonderful! But seriously I did use quite a few of my MTB muscles yesterday so återhämtning in the form of Where the Action Is tomorrow is good. And then I have 4 days to recover until Ränneslättsturen.

I started looking through the course description and the höjdprofil is nothing to be scared of when I think of the hill I live next to. Anyone have any tips? The first 19km seems to be pretty easy.

I almost didn't go out this morning because I just felt zero motivation for training. But I decided to just take my simple hill loop and just ignore the fact that next weekend I need to go much farther. Halfway up to Björndammen the noises started on the vevparti yet again and I was ready to throw the freakin thing in the small lake I was passing (except Sid...Sid I can save). So on pure rage I flew the rest of the way up to Kåsjön and then tried to calm down a bit over to Tahult and down the hill.

When you turn left on Härkeshultsvägen and ride up the hill, the forest starts and you get that lovely smell of pine needles. Just after that, there is a small 'road' which I always look at and then keep riding. Well, today I decided to explore it. It becomes a traktorstig which winds its way downhill and is quite a slippery little thing. Good start. It ends at a little clearing full of garbage (stupid people) and becomes Vildmarksleden which is obviously a classic for those of you living out towards Landvetter/Bollebygd.

This description deserves a new paragraph because this trail was so f&%#ing amazing! I am not saying it was easy because there were tons of roots and rocks to dodge your way around and a couple of challenging hills. But for the most part I was on the bike thinking 'This is why I bought an MTB!' That part of the forest was dry and did not have any of those large rocks which are common around Skatås.

The trail came out on a grusväg which actually is Knipavägen because it ended in the trail I rode twice last year and hated. The stretch from there to Kåsjön is still useless. The trail is not wide, there is swamp for at least 500m and the parts in between were pretty unrideable. I could see other tire tracks but still I would not suggest this part. It kills the cykelglädje. Turn right on Knipavägen instead and enjoy the neverending gradual uphill traktorstig full of all kinds of obstacles. At least you can ride.

Anyway, I guess I should just buy a silly momentnyckel so I know that everything is as tight as it should be. Because if it still comes loose I will know that I need to replace it.

I decided to not change anything on the bike right now. I loosened the steering a bit since it was too tight against the bearing which was causing my uncertain drifting. Now it is superb! So I can mention Ränneslättsturen in every entry so my blog can appear with the others on Långloppscupen.

The route I just took was heavy on XC. Starting as usual from Puketorp and into my fantastic little blue trail out to Bläcktjärn. I turned left and then right at a little unmarked trail which I rode with Hansen last summer. Parts of this are just horrible and other parts are brilliant. Either way you can't get more XC than this. It started raining and everything became quite slippery. There was a rather large root that was no match for Sid. Or, well, I did get the front wheel over but the back slid and sent me flying. But this is normal.

Since what I saw today is worse than any långlopp I will see and since today went well, I think I can stop with the XC for the moment and concentrate on grusväg and distance. 78km is a wee bit more than what I did this morning...and the race is next weekend.

Yes, and what do I have in my calendar today at 16.30? Meeting. It is like they are consciously trying to prevent me from making it to MTB training. Oh well. Now I have 3 days ahead of me and I a bike that works. Finally.

First of all I would like to ask Västtrafik for my 90 minutes back. I was on this spårvägn when it crashed into a truck and essentially shut down all traffic in the centre. Then because of some stupid bridge repairs after 17.30 at Svingeln they moved all of the Partille buses to Ullevi so I had to take Alingsåspendeln and walk back home from Allum. Did I see any sign of construction activity at Svingeln? Of course not.

Finally I got home only to find my package from Wiggle sitting outside my door. Stupid Parcel Force obviously doesn't care about the value of my Squeezy gels and new stem. But anyway all of the parts I need are now here.

It was 19.00 and I headed out for a nasty 'empty stomach' ride up to Furlund on the löpspår of death fully expecting the usual noises from the vevparti. But...NEJ! Perfectly silent! Makes no sense at all how a couple of mud bits could cause so much noise. But I did put a bucket of grease on so that may also have helped.

Now I am back!

I just took off the vevarm on the MTB to check for massive damage and, well, I saw nothing obvious other than a lot of grease and sand/stone crap. I didn't take the bottom bracket off because it looked just fine. So I cleaned it all and slopped on some more grease. At first I thought that there was a little plastic bit broken but, no, that was also fine. So I just put it back together with a pile of grease and tightened the screws evenly. Tomorrow I will see if this made any difference at all.

While I had the bike flipped and I put on the back wheel I checked the chain and gear adjustments. It is about as good as you can get with 3-delade but one thing I did notice was some type of gap between when I moved the pedal and when the wheel turned. So this may be a wheel/cassette issue.

The second time I raced Lida Loop I won a set of Mavic Crossride wheels which I have sitting on the betong Trek now. They are not amazing wheels but then again my Fulcrum Red Metal 5 are almost bottom of the line too. So if I don't notice improvement with the vevparti I can swap the wheel and check. But knowing that there is no obvious damage and that everything is tight, I see no reason not to ride it.

It has been easy to be a solskenscyklist here since we haven't really had much rain. The ground was dry and beautiful everywhere. But I know better to get confidence in dry times because it makes mud a painful lesson. After yesterday's rain, I had to get out today. And it was even raining a fair bit when I left.

Checking the bike. Bolts on the arm tight as Philip suggested? Check. As usual this made no difference and it was creaking away after 5 minutes. Correct air pressure in Sid? Yep. Correct pressure in the Conti X King Racesport? Nja...2.6 bar is a bit too safe when it is this wet.

For the most part the bike had 6 bags of grip (instead of the usual 8) despite massively wet conditions in the forest. I did discover that it has zero grip on pavement in a corner. Good to know. But everywhere else it was way better than Speed King or any other tire I have tried. But just to know for sure I made one attempt uphill on a slanted wet rock and that did not work. Gave me a nice frame bash right on my kneecap. But I have done much worse before. It will still slide on wet roots but Sid helps me to attack them at the right angle so I won't be in a situation of getting stuck or sliding.

Anyway, I even cleaned the bike out in the rain since I will now take it apart and check for cracks. It has to be a crack. It has to be something somewhere.

Yesterday I got home from work at 19.30. No chance for either training options in other words. But this morning I used a bit of my vacation day for MTB instead of driving to Norway.

All of that screwing seemed to help at first since there were no pedal noises. But then I turned up the gradual hill road and the squeaking started as usual. It only squeaks when I am putting a lot of force on the pedals. It is not the pedals themselves because they are the same I used for CX and I had no trouble there. It is also not the clips because it squeaked before on the old shoes too.

I have no choice but to take the whole vevarm/vevlager off and start again. I was hoping to do that today but my package from EvaldsMTB has just been sent now. So basically I have a bike that is probably fine providing I dont hit any hills. Guess it is time to move to Denmark.

I spent last night screwing and fiddling with the MTB to see if I could isolate this creaking problem. The vevarm was not terribly tight and when I did tighten it the opposite screw usually loosened a bit. So I probably have uneven wear on the bottom bracket which would explain another noise. I should have the BB today and my new stem will be here early next week.

Obviously I have decided to DNS Farrisrunden which is a shame. But I need to fix everything. I can't just ride it despite obvious problems. No more short cuts. I need to be able to trust the silly thing. At the moment it has problems during every ride.

Kanskecrossen is tonight AND the usual MTB training. But I am not even going to get my hopes up for making it by 18.00. I do have the next 3 days off though so that will mean a fair bit of cross and a KanskeMTB depending on delivery times.

I have never understood this whole bottom bracket thing. I mean sure it is at the bottom but where is the bracket? Vevlager makes way more sense. Whatever you call it, I need one. And after my usual disappointing trip about to a couple 'cycling stores', I have to order online yet again.

EvaldsMTB is probably the obvious choice for many here but for some reason I haven't used them before. I know I have checked a few times but did not find what I was looking for. But now they have everything plus a little 5% discount after joining. Then I can splurge an extra 20kr and go for the XTR instead of the XT.