What frame material were the gold Explosif’s?

Used to love mine!

I “only” have a hardtail XC race bike which is fine if your skills are up to it. Two short sections of Ginger Spice take some nerve to ride, but everything else is just as it should be.

I would say the perfect bike is a UK style long travel hardtail, say a Soul with 120/140 forks.

Guess the Meta is FS? Its been unusually dry here, but things could change in a couple of weeks, which means mud can be an issue with regard to cleaning, parts wear etc.

The 11th Dec is the final round of the national CX cup in Göteborg, (I’ll be racing), which is being held in Slottskogsvallen, by the athletics track.

This will also be the area where the MTB XC nationals will be next year, although there is no riding as such in Slottsskogen, it is only 3 KM from the area where I linked into above.

If you want to ride with the locals then simply create an account at happymtb.org and place a forum request, they are a freindly bunch and writing in English is OK.

There are some excellent trails just outside the city centre. Next years MTB National champs are also being hosted in the city.

When are you over?

This is a classic, Ginger Spice. Around 15km long in an area called Änggården

More info

They are nice those Guunars, the same guy has one of their MTB’s as well in the same light blue colour, lovely.

That would 5 degrees and a nasty cold wind then. bbrrr.

Swedish chef did you think about the availability of light steel forks?

I use a carbon frame and forks, however out of the the 5 people I know who race on steel frames, 4 of them use Easton carbon forks. The other uses the steel ones which came with his very nice Gunnar.

What do light steel forks come in at, 700grams?

Great weekend racing down in the south of Sweden, rounds 8 and 9 of the national series.

A somewhat disappointing 19th on Saturday, and a rather better 8th place today.

Gnarr, cross style!

All the people racing this weekend who had steel frames had carbon forks.

Very popular over here in the XC scene, but otherwise non existent from a promotional point of view

I’ve ridden the 2011 editions of:
Canyon Lux
Trek Top Fuel
Specialized Epic
Cannondale Scalpel

Despite owning a hardtail, I can say that all those above would be on my short list for a new XC race machine.

8th round in the Swedish cyclocross cup Saturday, 13th place. Swedish cycloross championships Sunday, 19th place.

One tough weekend of racing!

Tabata.

Train smarter not more.

As an aside, your max and threshold heart rates are sport specific, so your running and cycling numbers will be different for instance.

The only way to really know your zones is to get your lactate tested on a bike by a specialist. Very interesting, and certainly worth it if you compete.

Not wasted:

8th round in the Swedish cyclocross cup yesterday, 13th place. Swedish cycloross championships today, 19th place.

Great weather, dry but around +5 degrees, perfect with a little embrocation.

Two, a hard tail 100mm carbon fibre XC race bike, and a carbon fibre CX bike. All my training, racing, and general riding is done on them.

A more upto date RaboBank cross bike, the 2012 season Giant

As demo’d by Emil Lindgren at last weeks club session

A lot are waiting for true hydraulic STI units by Shimano/SRAM. A few are already, and I guess a few simply won’t bother.

Speaking to a RaboBank rider at the weekend, there seems to be a split in opinion as to if there is an actual need in most CX races for disks.

Still I expect in 3 years there be standard

Google’s “Paligap”, thanks LoCo

Love that Ritchey, be interested to know if charliethebikemonger will be getting any in to compliment the also lovely P29er.

Now that would be a dream pairing of bikes for me.

Brilliant post jackthedog

The same attitude exists in Sweden as BruceWee states, although its a little less extreme. However the idea of staying around in the office to be “seen” is utterly alien over here, unlike the UK.

I bill an average of 40 hours a weeks, and then maybe work 5 to 10 hours more on internal projects for my company. I work very flexible hours and have a much better work/life balance than the UK despite earning a lot less.

£150 for a turbo, most likely double that for a spinning bike.

Turbo’s are quite loud and would require you to move your bike inside and set it up, or leave one permanently set-up. If you’ve only got one then this might be an issue with regard to cleaning the bike before moving it inside, or motivation to get it from the shed in the first place.

Hard Grit is the only DVD you need 🙂

Climbing, like bike technique, is best learnt following someone who is way better than you. I spent Sunday morning getting schooled by Emil Lindgren, (8th MTB worlds this year), and it was crazy how much I learnt by just following lines and body position.

Googel Neil Gresham as he’s done a lot of climbing technique stuff

There are two schools to Tabata, the original which was each effort should be done 170% of FTP, and therefore consistent over all 8 efforts. The other being go all out from the first, die a death around the 5th, and limp home.

I use the former approach and find that I have more confidence to go into the red whilst racingm, knowing I can recover quicker from it.

When racing once or twice at the weekends, I’ll rest Monday, ride rollers Tuesday and Thursday and do a Tabata session on the Wednesday, rest again on the Friday.

The roller sessions will be an hour tops and enough to get a good sweat on, but not too strenuous, the short session will be hard, intensive, but structured so that I maintain a consistent output over all the intervals, (as was the original Tabata idea).

Love Thule racks here as well, although I use the outrider, which clamps the front wheel, either via the QR of through the axle.

I never tire of seeing that picture Stu, nice

There are some great pictures on this thread[/url]

I’m getting a fitness test this afternoon, so I’ll be able to compare the results against the test done earlier ths year in February. This will then form the major input into my winter training.

Although I already know I want to throw in one strength session this winter.

Have a look at Archi[/url] its a freeware ArchiMate notation modelling tool. You can create “normal” flow diagrams if needed.

Else look at Sparx Systems[/url] they do a free 30 day download of their tool, and the private use license is not too costly either

many thanks

Super interesting link trickydisco. What power range are you putting out on rollers?

Very very nice, I even googled the makers blog and had a good read earlier. Something to be proud of that.

Yes the gears make a difference, therefore having a massive 54 tooth chanring would increase the effort needed.

There was some power output information somewhere in a review, but can’t seem to find it now.

Rollers are fine for something like 2*20 minutes. I would not fancy doing a downward spiral session on them though. Horses for courses really as you’re training for different outcomes.

Variable resistance rollers look like the answer, but man they cost!

wow, that seems somewhat odd advice to me.

I use a turbo for Sufferfest sessions, and rollers for technique and less intensive sessions.

Rollers are no where near as bad as people make out. By the second session I was quite happily riding for 10-15 minutes without having to stabilise myself. After an hour you know you’ve done a session.

Nice, big style points that. Hope you enjoy it.

Trek 9.9 ssl with XT groupset and American Classic wheels.

Raced the national XC and marathon series this year, great bike.