Pictures from the weekend

The weekend is over, the racing is over and a big THANK YOU to all the people who made this awesome racing in Stora Skuggan, Stockholm possible! Let’s do all we can to make this event bigger, better and more spread to all the non cyclists too.

Here is some random pictures from women and men elite race and some from the Men 40 yesterday:

Matthias Wengelin

Dennis Wahlqvist

Matthias Wengelin

Jenny Rissveds

Emma Johansson

Ida Jansson and Angelica Edvardsson

the course

Emma Johansson

Jenny Rissveds

Jenny Rissveds

Emma Johansson

Åsa Erlandsson,

the course

the course

CK Barriär

Are you ready for CX Nationals tomorrow?

Last training this morning and trying my new tires. Feels like it was a long time riding CX tubulars but the difference is huge. Took a couple of pictures looking at Järla Sjö:

Flower Power today, Floral Kit from Warsaw Cycling and Sako7 flowersocks 😉

Met up with this fast dude. A DHer who both got the skills and speed for CX, will be interesting to see what Alexander Kangas can manage tomorrow:

Rode for an hour and discussed riders and how great it was to ride in the sun with all colours. Will be awesome tomorrow.

Map and stats: Strava

Me and the others in Men 30 starts at 10.30 tomorrow. Women elite 11.30. Men elite 13.15 and Men 40/50 at 14.30

All sent live on Sportway

Welcome to cheer on the slower CK Valhall guy in Men 30 😉 I need it

Replay from CX World Cup Valkenburg

Really good racing yesterday at the 2nd CX World Cup of the season. Photos from it here: Cyclephotos

And the women race:

the men race:

190min of suffering, a.k.a. Lida Loop

No racemood, no power, no result. Felt like I was finished after 4km today, then it was 60km left. Thought of abandon the race after loop 1 but continued after I got a new bottle from David and cheered on by Niclas Andersson (best supportguy in Swedish mtb). Halfway I slipped on some wet roots and crashed, my leg and arm was hurting but didn’t see any blood (between the mud) so continued. Fredrik Winberg who I always beat passed me and so did Martin. Thought of abandon after loop 2.

Passed the start/finish area and got a new bottle from David. Said it was sucked but continued. Was burping my rear tire on a descend and felt a bit soft. 0,9-1 bar something when I stopped and felt. Rode easily and borrowed a pump from a guy standing on the side and pumped up to like 1,2. Continued.

Passed 10km to go and I calculated a finish time around 3h15min, not under 2h57min that I wanted. Didn’t see the 5km sign but a 4 and then the 2 came pretty fast. Passed 1km to go and passed a couple of guys. Ended with a climb up the ski slope and passed 3 more riders. Thought I was halfway up but where all the way so closed my skinsuit and rolled over the finish line.

It felt like shit, disappointed with the time. But happy with the finish, a finish is so much better than a DNF. 3h10min.

Big thanks to David from Specialized Concept Store Stockholm for super feeding. Thanks to all my friends making my hard life a bit easier. SCS Racing Team got 2 3rd places today too. Axel Lindh in men elite and Carolin Holmqvist in women elite 😀 Fredrik ”Seglarn” Edin won men elite and Åsa Erlandsson women elite.

Me, Jaime (who beat me with 11min) and the great Axel Lindh by Jesper Andersson

My skinsuit was just fantastic today. Great fit, great padding and so right functions 😀 Even so I think of racing more just to be able to use it 😉

Equal pricemoney at Koppenbergcross!!!

Women and men CX riders train as much to perform on their absolute top level. But there is a big difference in support by sponsors and pricemoney at races. And it seems hard to change. One who is doing as much as she can is Helen Wyman who raced a lot in USA where Twenty22Cycling stepped in last season to sponsor with money so women got the same amout of pricemoney as the men. Shouldn’t Europe be better?

Now Wyman got help from Twenty22Cycling in US to get equal pricemoney at Koppenbergcross on saturday. An american bikestore with help from Specialized in Belgium/The Netherlands step in to sponsor an european race at the CX center of the world? Can’t european race organizers be better then that? A video about it:

Belgian news about it: Nieuwsblad

Mariestads MTB Race

First XCrace today in over two years. And what a race. A tight course with a lot of small stones and roots and pretty flat. Full Suspension bike course. Really fun to meet all great people I haven’t seen for a while and even when I was the last one who finished (past one that seemed to have quit the race) and my back was hurting a lot in the end because it’s not used to ride so hard it was really fun to race. 😀

 

Far up to next rider. But next time I will race with those I will get higher up and not 14min after the first one. All results you find here: Mariestadscyklisten

And then it was time for the elite riders, juniors and H30 (men 30) and I walked around the course a bit and cheered and took some pictures of how you are supposed to ride:

 

And the winners. Ann Berglund – IK Hakarpspojkarna and Matthias Wengelin – CK Natén Säter:

 

Oh, nice Modify Watches clock on Matthias arm 🙂

If you want to how the track went and some stats from my race you can find it here: Movescount or follow me on Strava

Grote Prijs Sven Nys and Women’s Namur

Todays racing wasn’t as good as I hoped for but good anyway. Zdenek Stybar came second:

And you see, 1min 11 seconds after the winner, Kevin Pauwels. That’s hard. Blame routine as Stybar did some mistakes he shouldn’t have done if he was racing cyclocross all season instead of just showing up for a couple of weeks. But love to see him back even if it’s just for now. Last belgian race for him today, just the Czech Championship in 1,5 weeks left for his season.

 

Results (happy that Niels Albert didn’t caught Stybar even if it was close.

1. Kevin Pauwels – Sunweb-Napoleon Games (new sponsor)

2. Zdenek Stybar – Omega Pharma-Quick Step

3. Niels Albert – BKCP-PowerPlus

And then the nice video from Petitesrennes from the women’s world cup in Namur. He knows how to show how hard and awesome CXracing is. Just change the top of the podium from Katie Compton to Sanne van Paassen and it would be perfect 😉

French class of Koksijde

Petitesrennes has released the video from womens CX world cup race in Koksijde. Enjoy it here:

When are you starting to race?

It’s august, rain is started to come down here in Bergen again, the americans already started, new teamkits are coming, new teammembers, albums for season 2012-13 is coming up on Facebook. It’s soon time for Cyclocross again after training on road and mtb all summer.

A fall when we see if Sven Nys still dominates, If Marianne Vos wins everything she starts, if Jeremy Powers continues with his Behind the Barriers, if Marco Aurelio Fontana will win another Italian CX Championships and with discs for first time? Questions are many but the most important is which riders will be the stars that will race serious from countries like Sweden. Any races in Norway?

Will you race? Will you just ignore or will you follow every race that is on Sporza and try your best to learn flemish? 1 hour of pain, 1 hour of mud and rain, 1 hour to ruin your carbon fibre wheels, 1 hour to conquer, 1 hour of class, 1 hour of the most impressive racing, 1 hour to became the best. Don’t miss that hour!

If you want the CXseason to start as much as I want you should have a look at this pictures, check out Nine Ball Diaries and follow Cyclocross Magazine

 

 

Get yourself a CX, a pair of tubulars like Record/Dura-Ace with DT Competitionspokes and Ambrosio Crono F20 rims. A pair or two of FMB tires like Grifo Medium and go out riding. It’s not harder than that to start.