/JON

During the Rally all my blog updates will be at Betsafe's Gumball blog. Make sure to follow it! 

/JON

We figured that the drive would be great to get us synced on gas stops etc but we did not get very far until we ran into som problems. We first felt a little unbalance in the rear right tire, stopped and realized that we had lost a bit pressure, filled it back up with a "tire spray",  thought all was good and drove off again, but after 300m we just heard a big bang and the tire exploded.

This was in the middle of nowhere at 9pm so I was pretty sure that we would be kind of F**ed, but I did call up some frieds in Oslo and asked if they had any connections… 50 minutes later they had found a guy online selling Q7 wheels two hours away and with a little bit of extra delivery cost we now had new wheels on the way. 3 hours later we were on our way again, maybe in the most traditional way as our car was completely full so we had to throw the wheels on the roof and strap them on through the windows. Not ideal or comfortable, but good enough to get us to Sthlm. The 1000km trip was going to be long but with this 4 hour break and wheels on the roof it tured out to be REALLY long. Got to Sthlm at 7 in the morning yesterday so I have been a bit low on energy since then!

Oh well, things like this makes for great memories and now we know what our Q7 would look like if it were to take part in the Dakar rally!

/JON

Banged out another 17 runs yesterday and I feel super happy about where I am at the moment as I feel that skiing is getting easier every day. Last year I feel like I tried to change small things in my movement pattern like hip, shoulders, stance etc which made me feel uncomfortable in my skiing, while now I just change the way I think about the line and the pressure and try to let my body solve the problem in the most natural way, which feels so much easier and better for me! So stoked already for the upcoming winter! 

Only a few more days left here before I have to fly south to Copenhagen and prepare for Gumball so I think thats going to be quite a contrast, but thats what I love the most about having skiing, no matter how much craziness I get into, I always find it great to stay grounded when you get up 5am to be ready on the hill at 6am and then ski all day!

/JON

I know it’s not question monday and the answer might not be for everyone, but i’m gonna try anyway: How does this gumball-appearance work out with all your sponsors?!

I see many sponsors on that car, but neighter audi nor Red Bull seem to have anything to do with this project… even though it would have made sense for these brands.

I don’t even see a YNIQ or JON sticker on that car – how does that come? I know, you teamed up with people you don’t share any sponsors with, but it’s still your car… or can you strictly seperate that car-thing from the skiing-game cause betsafe & co are paying you that much?!

• As we all know Red Bull has a very tight strategy when it comes to branding, and they never brand cars that roll on public roads, they stay strictly to motorsports and their "samling cars". (the Red Bull branding on the Rebellion a few years back was just for a specific event) So that is not an issue at all for me. I do think the car would look epic in a RB livery, but then I would have to start racing it for real…
• Audi is a partner to JOI in Åre and I am sure that they would not appreciate if I was promoting a BMW but a personal custom car like this is not an issue at all.
• As for the other branding its kept as close to the "Normal" Gumball branding as possible, but since Betsafe is a big sponsor of Gumball they are allowed to make two of their cars a bit special so that is why I can do mine the way I can. I do however try to keep it as clean as possible so that is why there are no Yniq nad JON logos on the car.
• So I try to find good ways to keep everyone happy, but with the 10000 things I do its sometimes a bit of a puzzle, but as long as I am open with what I can and cant do it usually works out great!

/JON

By 8 we started seeings some small clouds but by then I had over 10 runs in my legs so when the weather came in at 9 we were already done, by lunch the wind had picked up and the visibility was gone! So sometimes it pays off to get up in the morning and get right on it!

Like the previous days I am working on giving myself room and arcing as clean as I can, and the turns where I get it right does feel so much easier then the tighter, straighter line I am used to taking! Now all I have to do is keep pushing and try to get a million turns made like this before its race time next year, but its nice to have a simple feeling in my skiing again, the feeling that I felt that I was missing all of last year!

/JON

This time the focus has been to really make the car work and be drivable instead of the earlier maxed out performance that never seemed to work. We did spend a lot of time on the interior as we knew that we will pretty much live in it during Gumball, so if you are in Sthlm om the 19th make sure to come check it out at Skeppsbron at around 16.00 (More exact times will follow). I hope you guys like it, I am super happy and I would like to thank all the guys that has helped me get the car to what it is now!

• Leif Tufvesson and Caresto for doing an amazing job taming this beast!
• Alexander  from bilupplysningen.se for the updated lights
• ADV1 for the best wheels ever!
• Oskar Bakke for photos and all the design help
• Cam Shaft Wrapping for the epic chrome foil and Kisterlappen for setting it perfectly!
• Carl at Svenskbyggradio for hooking us up with perfect comunication during the rally
• Jens for being a kick as co owner and partner in the project!

And last but not least my GF Janni for putting up with me spending day and night thinking about this car!

So now enjoy the movie and pictures and I hope to see all of you in Sthlm on the 19th! To stay updated on the rally, make sure to follow gumball.betsafe.com/ for constant movies and pictures during the rally as well as my Instagram account (@jonolsson1) for hourly updates during the rally! Cant wait for the 19th when its time to put this baby through its final exam!

Dont expect us to the first car to arrive in Sthlm, I know that the law enforcent will be out watching us and we will make sure to stay out of trouble on the first day of the rally and make sure to get to where we need to be safely, but dont expect us to be last either…

EDIT: I would have put a ski box on it if I had a good way to do it, (I could really use the extra space) but with the doors coming up it would be so narrow that it might hold a pair of cross country skis on a good day! So until I find a way to get around that I guess I will be boxless…

/JON

We drove up early but realized that one of our sleds had been left halfway down when the road had been closed. So first mission was to drive back down and drive the sled up, but finding your way up is far from easy, so Oskar (had got the mission) called after 30 mins and needed som help, so me and Oskar jumped on the RMK and drove down to help him find a good way up, a lot easier on our sled that can climb anything!

Once we where up we had to dig out the salt from under 2m of snow, then set the course, salt it up and by the time we were ready to go, the sun was gone and the light was as flat as it gets! Kind of good tough as it brought some extra difficulty to the training.

So right now I have Oskar Andersson here with me coaching me both on and off the hill, so despite the federations cut back on the EC team I still have a great set up! For the past 3 weeks we have been working on a later switch between the tuns as well as giving myself more room from the gates to be able to ski the skis more fluently without getting interupted by the gates, and I feel like its really paying of, skiing feels really good at the moment and I have a clear plan of what to work on!

Having sleds here really helps us out a ton as we can get 10 runs in 45 mins, something that I love as its hard to be fully focused for much longer than that. Pretty weird to be up here all alone but I like the fact that I know that I am trying my best to take the next step in my skiing, and as long as I know that I can go to bed and feel good about myself!  

/JON

Weather looks good today so we are heading up to try to get some training done, either way I am super happy to be here!

/JON

This will be the place to best follow Gumball where we also will have all of my blog updates during the rally, so make sure to bookmark this site! gumball.betsafe.com

The movie that we shot on Sunday is being edited right now and I cant wait to see it! 

I am now back in Norway where the snow keeps on falling so training is a bit hard, but we will keep pushing over here until I have to leave for Gumball, thats all we can do!

/JON