Gothenburg CX Weekend
How the year has passed and the cross season started again with a bang! Picture: That time of year when we run up stairs with bikes in our hands. Credits: Christianovic von Frosthausen
In memoriam: Sillen (2008 - 2016)
She loved cycling and cycling around in the bike basket and she accepted me as her friend and I am forever thankful for that. She kept me company trough hard times and with her attitude and personality it sure was fun battling my existentialist ghosts during our cold, dark winter walks. Gods - you better keep throwing her that ball up there! (Photo by Erik Jonsson)
Date Location Discipline, club Result 2016-09-24, 2016-09-25 Gothenburg, Sweden Cykelcross, CK Barriär Day 1: 11/32, Day 2: 11/35
Day 1
Pre-pre-race
Monday - rest (dead, yup, still dead from the Sundays race) Tuesday - finally able to join Bariiär training at Holma, JP and Phillip set up an awesome track, did 5 laps booom Wednesday - Innebandy with work colleagues after 2 year of no innebandy (worst ... idea ... ever) Thursday - everything hurts (abs, lower back, inside of my thigs, soles of my feet, my fucking elbow hurts), join Musette crit cross down at Scania badet for some intervals, took it easy, got sand everywhere Friday - Chill with Sillan and make her last day the most awesomest day ever.
Pre-race
get up at 5:45, FML, Get to GBH, late windmills passed on the way: million windmills under construction: 2 Thoughts: build a nuclear power plant and stop raping us with these monstruosities, fucking hippies All the way smelled like cow shit Actual cows seen taking a shit: 1 Arrive at venue, people already warming up, quickly dress up and start reconing the course Meet people, chat, Ole says 'Hej Mike' 'Huh, what, who ... are ... you?' He takes off his glasses - 'Aaaahhh, Ole, hey man, what's up? Didn't recognize you there, was thinking - who the f*** knows me in GBH?' Snacka litte Sign in, say hi to Walter, pin Pettars number, share wisdom B class lines up for start, I scream at my teammates 'GOOO BARRIÄR UUURRRGHHH', Everyone turns and looks at me, I go ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ People look definitelly not ready to start, more like they are waiting for a free microwave during lunch hour at work so I scream at them some more, to get them peppad B race starts, yell at Barriär colleagues, including but not limited to: 'Smoooooth, keep it smooooooth', 'Let it rolll, let it rooooooool', 'Attack in the uphil ... wait for it ... wait ... GO GO GO NOW', 'Show me some Watts', 'Look, Christian is right there, go get him'
Clothes, Equipment
Merckx Eeklo with some sweet Stans Iron Cross wheels, Schwalbe X-One tubeless and AbsoluteBlack 38 oval chainring. Replaced the 130 stem with 100, lowered the front by 1cm BOOM, nailed it! Custom wheels provided by Cykelcity (sporting Hope hubs with Mavic Rims and FMB super mud tires) on standby in case weather changes. Team issues skinsuit, new Lazer Z1 yellow camo helmet and a Cykelcity warmup jacket. Pressure - IDK (bought expensive digital pressure gauge, does not work right due to tubeless sealant clogging the valve lol).
Track
Course is almost the same as last year, they moved start-finishline to the start straight and introduced a hellovalot of additional corners, left, right, left, right fffuuuu. Also added a climb with kinda switchback descend, niiiice touch. Dry as hell, all out fast trash-metal style course (loose, double-pedal, all out with drastic rhythm changes, think Anthrax). Ohhh yes, it's gonna hurt.
Plan
N/A
Minutes to race
Do 2 fast laps with Hagen, get the pressure right, just right (2 psssst out, 1 pump in), last piss (a bitch with a skinsuit, I tell you), remounting badly hitting my balls between the tire and frame Yes, this is going well Get to start, get called up first, take inside line, realize I made a bad decision, eh well Breathe, dedication, Slayer, you got this, don't mess up the start, dude on the left says: whatever you do don't crash into barriers DO NOT MESS UP THE START
Race
Start - totally mess up the start, miss 3 attempts to clip in By the time we reach the first corner I am like 20th FML Remember Jeremy Powers From there it's pretty much chasing down guys and passing them. During the first lap Hagen comes storming by, powerslides a corner, so the plan changes - chase Hagen! Inner monologue: I kinda wanted to shout to him: take it easy in the corners, but then I though - naaah, a race is a race, chase Hagen (never forget #raas :D) After that, we pass: - Young mr. Palm hehehe (This one if for you, Otto!) - Björn from Roslin (I think he had a mechanical, so I lapped him, he started putting up a fight and I was like: Dude, du var lappad, wtf?) - Dude from Stocholm (la Chemise, I hated those dudes at VSM, so this is PAYBACK, BITCH) - A larger dude who had his kid cheer for him (heja pappa, heja pappa) and I was like - take that, pappa, BOOM, HUMILIATION - Some more Juniors - A White/blue kid dude who sucked at pump section (TBH EVERYONE sucked at pump section) I manage to get one sketchy front wheel power slide in the gravel part Otherwise, nothing special till the end of the race Zip up skinsuit, tap the CKB logo on the heart, wave fingers in the air, cross the finishline #likeaboss
Post-race
Chit chat, high5 all around (we need to introduce some standard, it's awkward to high5 someone who wants to shake your hand or top5 someone who wants to low5 you ...) Get on the turbo and cool down, those legs will need to work on Sunday Watch elite start, get bored, go to stuga, check in, chilllllllllllll (with 3.5% beer, which is not beer, it's dinner, yeah? And chips and goddis) The rest arrives, chit chat some more, the rest go out for pizza, I chilllllllllllllll (and listen to Speedmetal cycling podcast) By 22:00 I am sleeping like a baby (except for the Turbo23 creme I put on my lower back - it burns, it BURNS)
Day 2
Pre-race
6:55 TTTT TTTT TTTT AND WE'RE UP Get dressed and go to breakfast as the rest is like - uuuugh, this is so early, I'm tired, everything hurts I say: guys, this is racing, it's not supposed to be nice and comfortable, there's a reason why motionlopps start at 11:00 :evildick: Eat breakfast, watch the start of UCI Jingle cross race Get to the venue, notice frisby golf is on (sponsored by macforum). FFS those frisby golf people, WTF??? Change, assemble bike, nod to Björn, pass a girl on the walk of game shame (walk it off baby, walk it off ...) Ride 2 laps, grass is a bit slippery, change wheels to mud, nope, too much suppleness (is that even a word), anyhow, sticking to Schwalbe XOnes, same pressure (lower temperature will make it lower pressure with same volume of casing, so all good because I thought I was a bit on the high side the day before) ... mmmm, science Descending in the forrest pass Ole who is cheering and his teammate Erik (who came 2nd both days BTW) who is sweeping the track, power slide some dirt onto his nice, white socks (later, I apologized, but I told him it was just too tempting to do it) Change to skinsuit, put on CykelCity warmupjacket, get on the turbo and warm up (songs: Metallica: Battery, Slayer: Fight till death, Grimes: Obliv ... nope, change to Rykers: A lesson in loyality, Bleeding through: Lost in a hail of gunfire and finally, Slayer: Angel of death, 2x) Finalize everything, do some start training at the parking lot, I cannot get the foot in for the fuck of it, FFS, why? WHHHYYYY???? Get to the start, piss, get called on to the line, pick outside line of the 2nd row just behind the fastest finishers of day before (yeah, see what I did there? Feeling proud of myself ...)
Race
(Click on it, it's a video) Start, got hold back because the fast guys have a shitty start FFS Accelerate on the left, kinda try to save it, maybe, just ... nope, waaaay back In the first corner the 'heja pappa' dude cuts on the inside, gets a healthy dose of 'DONT BE A DICK DUDE' while I block him Flashback - I did what he did at CX Kranj in 2015, and then I was totally 'dude, this is not a dick move'. Yes, it's totally a dick move to bomb on the inside while the whole pack is on the outside. My bad, I apologize for my behavior in 2015. (BTW, on the other hand, it's totally acceptable if two or three are battling it out ;) ) Get to the first climb and GO, ATTACK, I am not starting from behind again Gain like 5 places Eventually pass some more guys in the forest climb (my line FTW) Get stuck behind La Chamise Stockholm dude, a gap forms and I lose contact with the faster guys I pass the dude and another on the forest uphill section and I start to chase Hagen is up front, David comes storming by, Rikard is already up front THE CHASE IS ON (Click to get to video) We exchange lead a couple of times, I pass Rikard on the foresty punchy climb before the nice descend, shout at him: MOVE, KOMMER PÅ HÖGER! Then he passes me again after the stairs. FUCK (Later, he told me it was good of me to yell at him because he got a bit angry and went faster) Godammit, Björn comes by and passes me on the sketchy gravel section (FYI, I let him pass me there, nice and clean) THIS ... CHASE ... IS ... ON!!! Three laps to go Rikard crashes before the grass climb, so we pass him, he's now last of our little group David is leading, but I close the gap by the end of the climb, lose everything after the runup Björn moving away, fuck PLAN: in the beforelast lap see where David's weaknesses are, attack in the last lap REALITY - Forresty climb after the gravel turn, go for it, I take the wide line, shift down, fucking lay down some power and booom, leading, and after the offcamber descend, a couple of turns, a nice spit, and some more power I am away ... Now where is Björn? Goddammit, he's too far away ... POWER ON! So I basically smash the rest of the course, close the gap to Björn to 9s and open a gap to David to 3 seconds I should have attacked with 3 laps to go, FUUUUUUCK Zip up skinsuit, tap the CKB logo on the heart, wave fingers in the air, cross the finishline #likeaboss
Post-race
Take a picture for sponsors :D Chit chat, get coffee, chit chat some more, say bye and drive home Stop at McDonalds for coffee, end up ordering Big Mac menu with coffee Get stuck in traffic outside of Angelholm
Summary
The good - all good, all ... GOOD. The bad - could have squeezed 5% more out of my legs, also, 40min is not 2h 40 min, need to step up (speed up) my game yo! My remount sucks, my start sucks. The ugly - The car I drive to races (AKA Kenny Block) is not really meant for long distances, also, the AUX just died.
So, what did I learn this time?
Shorter time -> no time to wait and plan, just go go go 2016/2017 goals seem realistic, eyes on the prize!
These help me do what I love, go pay them a visit: Cykelcity Pcyclopat absoluteBLACK 184 RACEDAY