Lost post 6: Tour de saimaa day 2

Kerimäki kirkko - big in metric and imperial dimensions

Lusto (in a less sunny 2008)

So to continue from last time in our 'lost summer blogs' series...

Next morning was another scorcher, and as we had a short leg and a whole day we started off with a detour back to the Lusto suomen metsämuseo forestry museum which has a loop of the cycle route around it's arboretum.  As we had visited before (well worthwhile by the way considering the importance of forestry to Finland and to understand the hardships people went through in the past working the forests) we only stopped for postikortit, kahvia ja pullaa. 

lost post 5: tour de saimaa (day 1)

Postcard from Punkaharju via 

  

As you may have gathered by now, we (by which I mean I) am doing a catch-up series of 'lost' posts about what we did last summer. A very late back to school essay if you like.  Anyway in the last episode our heroes were about to embark on an epic trip around Finland... well, a bit of cycling and camping around the north-west corner of Saimaa anyway...

1. päivä: maanantai 5. heinä: Helsingista Parikkalaan (junalla) / Parikkalasta Punkaharjuun (pyöräillä)

Lost Post 4: What not to take on a bike ride

Hazards for cyclists... From Kesä10 - lost postcards

Imagine it is the middle of summer again - heinäkuu 2010 to be exact - remember the blue skies, 20 hours of light, 30+°C heat? You are going with your partner on a ten day cycling/camping holiday around Saimaa, starting in Parikala and ending with a few days at a friend's mökki near Haukivouri (see map) - about 350km in all. You can't be sure if the weather will hold, and for every cyclists's instinct shouting 'travel light' there is the camper's instinct whispering 'be prepared'. It may be warm and dry today, but it could be 10° colder, wet and windy in a weeks time. What do you take? 

No. 84 made it!

No. 84 approaches the finish at the Helsinki Velodrome: Tour de Helsinki 2009

It was a cold, wet day but 1300 cyclists turned up for the Tour de Helsinki yesterday. Lue lisää ja voittajasta tämä suomeksi.

No. 84 (who bears a startling resemblance to emmdee) was nervous at the start: riding on a borrowed road bike* he had only ridden for 10km, not sure what speed group to go with, not used to group riding, not looking forward to the forecast day of rain and 14°C temperatures, and hoping to finish before the 7hr cut off for the event.

In the end he started with the 24km/hr group near the back of the field (so crossing the start about 5 mins after the official 11am start time in the last hundred or so people) and rolled along slowly in the convoy at less than 20km/hr for the first 10km. The rain had stopped and the roads were damp but not soaked. When the 'free' cycling got started he realised that he could go faster than the group speed, especially drafting in a pack, and after the first pit stop at Lepsämä (38km) left the group hoping to catch one supposedly 5mins ahead... the rest of the was spent moving from small group to small group, hoping to catch one that was travelling about 27km/hr on the road (his average by this time) and enjoying the ride.

Skipping stop 2, things stayed this way (near misses with cyclists dodging orava aside) until after stop 3 at Paippinen at 95km where after stopping to refill bottles, eat mini-bananas and phone ahead to the support team his ETA, he rejoined to find the roads seemingly empty, only catching and passing the occasional rider and seeing several stopped with punctures. The roads then became soaking wet from recent rain, and his legs started to tighten up and tiredness set in and without a group to shelter in the speed began to drop off. Then at about 110km as no.84 took a breather behind another slightly slower rider another one came past (no.1410) at a better pace; tagging onto him 84 was able to pick up the pace and after a few kilometres agreed (in broken Finnish) to try to stick together and help each other for the rest of the ride. Towards the final 5 to 10 km this became a matter of sisu as 84 couldn't quite stay with him - particularly after a close call with a car that disobeyed a signal to stop from policeman directing traffic.

The support team gives a hand: Tour de Helsinki 2009

Finally arriving in the Velodrome for the finish and after few scarey moments on the wet track 84 completed the course, and stiff, exhausted but happy to be greeted by his supporters.

Official timing stats

Distance: 140.1km

Time: 5 hrs 37 mins 50 seconds

Position: 947 of 1178 recorded finishers/1301 starters

Average speed: 24.9km/hr

Stats from bike computer (i.e wheels moving):

Distance: 144.5 km (!)

Time: 5hrs 20mins

Average speed: 27.10km/hr

Max: 53.75km/hr

Thanks to everyone who sponsored me for this event, it was really appreciated - currently we have raised £340 (+£47 gift aid) via my JustGiving pages for Cancer Research UK and the CJD Support Network. If you haven't and still want to contribute the pages are still open!

*Many thanks to Patrick for the loan of his road bike for the day - it would probably have been 7+hrs on my mountain bike. Hmm - maybe I could get my own road bike for next year....

Pictures by Bore & Konna

Cows, Horses and Crayfish

Apparently they are both lactose-free

I managed a 120* km 'training' ride to Somero on Friday and after six hours and nine minutes** in the saddle was greeted with an appropriately named 'Recovery' bottled drink (although I was ironically too knackered to open it before the call of the sauna overcame me). I think it will come in handy for the real thing though. I also finally got the courage to try the infamous 'chamois' cream. If you don't know what that is, let's just say that the padding in cycle shorts used to be soft chamois-leather. So yes it goes there. I have a tub of 'Udderly Smooth' (see what they did there?) which was apparently developed for dairy cows... (I wonder how and why someone first thought to use it on places other than udders?) But despite some uncertainty of how much to use, it did indeed work, preventing any soreness in my own udder regions.

Earlier in the year - when I hurt my back - I thought I may only be using another animal treatment: Hevosvoide or horse 'liniment' (cream) - which Hiiri insisted was the best treatment. Although I'm not convinced it was, it actually does seem to be a popular sports muscle rub here, so who am I to argue - it works for tired a cyclist's legs and back muscles anyway - so I'm a bit annoyed to discover we left it at the cottage!

The reason for going to Somero in the first place was an invite from K&K to their rather lovely place there. It was originally supposed to be a traditional end-of-summer rapujuhlat (crayfish party) but ended up being raputtajuhlat (a without-crayfish party). Not that I minded - I was just pleased to get there.

Strangely getting back was much easier***

___

*well, 119.43 to be exact - although I had only planned it to be about 105km originally I did unintentionally take the scenic route out of Helsinki (well Espoo actually as I even cheated and started from Rauholahti at the other end of the Metro line from us to knock off 20km). I don't think they will allow that on the TdH. There again hopefully the TdH won't get lost.

** yes I know that's slow: only 19.4km/h average from pedal power. Even worse I actually set off at 13:10 and arrived at 20:30 - so I was actually stationary for over an hour.

***kiitos again to Taiska for the lift!

PS: You can still sponsor me for the TdH here

Good intentions

Luckily my bike is in better condition: From Åland cycle tour 2009

I know, I know. I was supposed to be writing in Finnish about the cycle trip, but what with language exams (yesterday) and Konna's (unintentional?) filling of every weekend with various activities the acres of spare time I should have seem to like a mirage...

Anyway as it is now only one month to the day until the Tour de Helsinki I thought I better commit myself to it once and for all, and so have now set up a JustGiving charity page, and a widget on the side of the blog, so it's not just my thighs that get to see the benefits of 140km of cycling.

At the moment I have two British charities Cancer Research UK and CJD Support Network, chosen due to their different connections with my family history. I would also like to have a Finnish charity, as I am in Finland afterall... but I am at a bit of a loss here as to what it could be - any suggestions of a suitable one in the comments section please, or to holynpoly[at]mudelta.co.uk

Hazards to navigation

Murraisia enjoying the sun

The good weather last week led to what was, with hindsight, an over-enthusiastic start to my cycling season. (No not there, my back actually). After several tours around the off-road tracks of Mustavuori before Vappu (including up and down what I like to call Roskismäki - the hill on the old landfill site overlooking the new harbour), we took a trip out to Mustikkamaa at the weekend to meet up with Bore and Persika, and to have a Vappu-left-overs picnic whilst sunning ourselves on the rocks. Even though the temperature was only in the low teens I still managed to get sunburn, although as Konna said I could sunburn from a 20W bulb; and if I will wear cycling shorts...

As well as bringing out the koivu (birch) leaves, flowers, confused woodpeckers drumming on (metal) lamp-posts, ants (muurahaisia), fat bumble bees (if you hit one while cycling you'd think a rock had pinged of your helmet), the sun also brought out photographers toting tripods lurking round corners and kyykärme (adders). While avoiding one of the former, I swerved towards a suspiciously serpentine 'stick' on the trail, narrowly missed it and turned back to see it weave rapidly off into the under-growth beside the track. Not something that is often a hazard around London...

Another problem is that I keep believing Konna when she says she knows the way (despite not having lived here for 10 years), this has led to a few 'scenic routes' (or usually un-scenic routes next to main roads instead of along one of the gravelled off-road track that Helsinki is well endowed with.  Luckily I'm not foolish enough not to take a map and compass with me.  Even better YTV (Helsinki's public transport body) provides a cycle route planner that not only is available in English but lets you choose the type of cycle path (tarmac, gravel, road) and set way-points.  All I need now is a way to integrate that with GPS on my iPhone. And an iPhone. Of course even good route planning doesn't stop people going the wrong way, or digging up half of Myllypuro which put a spanner to our previous long trip (by cutting off several cycle and pedestrian paths), and did again as we tried to get home and was inexorably pulled back there.  

We're on a road to nowhere... well Myllypuro actually

Despite all that, last week I only totted up another 100km, and am now suffering for it (mainly as Hiiri keeps trying to get me to use horse linament on my back) - 140km in six or seven hours is starting to seem a big task.

Can you see the wood for the trees?

Näetkö sinä metsän puilta?

As my other half previously proudly reported: 'The training for TdH has begun'... Still for a friend, an aquintance, a family member or to an ex-colleague far far away it can be a somewhat difficult task to understand how exactly has his rigorous training started... Well, as a closely observing supporter - I can enlighten you on this matter:

Sat 25.04.09 at
17:00 Dress up & find lights, pack the bag & fill the water bottle
17:16 Pump up back tyre as it is flat again, unlock bike
17:30 Saddle up and head towards the gravel road behind the house
17:45 Go under 'KEHÄ I' (=ring road I) and turn left at the 'kuplahalli' (=bouble hall... for ice hockey) to realise that the path is cut off by a big bulldozer... Turn back & go around 'kuplahalli' & climbe up 45deg/50m clay slope & realise that the road is cut of there too... Figure out a new route towards 'Viikki'.
18:30 Arrive in the destination via 'R-Kioski' as shops are already closed - buy a cider/beer & sausages
18:40 Sit down, enjoy a cold beer with friends


18:45 Eat a sausage with mustard:


19:00 Have shampagne from a shoe:


19:15 Have an other sausage, a little bit white bread & brie, throw in some crisps... and sweeties
20:30 Realise you have to go before the dark (as you never found the lights)
20:35 Go to toilet & fill up the water bottles & get kissed by a dog
20:40 Saddle up
21:30 Get lost (again)
22:00 Arrive home... just when it's getting properly dark
22:05 Lock up the bike
22:10 Have a shower
22:30 Fall asleep

Sun 26.04.09
- Can't walk as legs ache
- Can't sit... you probably understand why

Mon 27.04.09
- Have to lie down as back aches (at least cannot work...)

Yes - the training has begun. How much time did he have?

Do you like needles?

Marienhamn harbour at midnight, July 2006.

Ahvenamaa or Åland (as the locals prefer to call it, or rather them) is a bit of a historical geo-political oddity.  An archipelago of more than 6000 islands and skerries, although only 35 inhabited, it is inhabited around 26,ooo Swedish speaking people in an autonomous Finnish kunta (Commune). The Swedish Krona freely circulates (although the Euro is the official currency), they have their own flag and the Finnish defence forces are forbidden (it was made a demilitarised zone after the first world war).  Lying between Turku and Stockholm, handily for the locals all the big ferries stop at it's capital Marienhamn (Maarianhamina) albeit in the middle of the night, in order to take advantage of it being outside the EU-customs zone; but in the process adding an annoying couple of extra hours to the Helsinki-Stockholm journey time (unless you're just on the boat for the booze, fags and karaoke, in which case who cares). It has probably the best summer weather in Finland, (but the worst winter weather if you like skiing) and some beautiful archipelagic scenery. And, to get a bit closer to the point of this post, it's also reputed as a great place for cycling and camping holidays.

So as you might guess we are planning a cycling/camping holiday in Åland (I'm going to use the local names for everything from now on as I am writing in English and to annoy Konna who insists on using the Finnish versions), for a week this summer and as well as the usual logistical issues of transport, equipment, food, routes and accommodation to resolve (as we are not doing a pre-packaged deal) we also need to think about something I associate with visiting exotic destinations like Africa or the far east father than cartographical inksplashes in the Baltic. Vaccinations.

Now to get right up close and personal with the point of the post, Åland also is home to something other than a bunch of people with a long standing identity crisis (Finns, Swedes, Ålanders...). Ixodes ricinus ticks. Yum, look tasty don't they? Unfortunately as well as being as fugly as hell, and liking to latch on to wayfarers and do impressions of blood-filled coffee beans, punkki are tricky to remove.  Then you discover they potentially carry two even more unwanted guests: the bacterium Borrelia burghdor feri, which causes Lyme disease; and even worse, the virus for Tick Borne Encephalitis (TBE) in 1:200 to 1:1000 ticks.  Åland is considered endemic for TBE in Finland (although maybe not according to UK NaTHNaC), which is un-curable after contracting it, and it has a 1-2% fatality rate. For this reason the advice seems to be that at-risks groups (which include cyclists and campers you-know-where) should consider having the vaccination course. 

So that's three shots at €40 a shot; €120 each to add to what was supposed to be a cheap holiday. Money well spent? Well it's hard to judge the risks on this sort of thing (just ask Ben Goldacre if you don't believe me) - trying to put it in perspective even taking the worst case: say 1 in 200 x 2% x say 50% chance of getting bitten/latched onto by a tick in a week (that last is a complete guess by the way) = 1 in 20,000 chance of death.  Which compares to something like a 1 in 94,000 chance of dying cycling in the first place. [A direct comparison of those figures is statistically completely wrong, as different things were being measured in each case - so please don't imagine that means 5x more likely!!!] 

Maybe we will end up going to the punkkibussi after all, too much knowledge is a worrying thing for Konna at least ... or am I being complacent when we can fix it with a needle or three?

Now what have I let myself in for

Well I look the part I suppose, although I'm not actually moving you'll notice...

Following on somewhat tardily from my post last month pondering it, I've finally signed up for the 'Tour de Helsinki' (TdH) - a 140 km (86 miles for the fossils/Yanks) cycle ride in September.  Once-upon-a-time this wouldn't have been such a big deal (as I mentioned before), but since I can probably count the number of times I've cycled more than 10 km in the last year on the fingers of one hand with two fingers cut off I figure I have a bit of training to do.  

We've already been trying to do an hour of sauvakävely (Nordic walking) each day (with about a 30% success rate if truth be told) this month, and we managed a 20 km ride (semi off-road) on Sunday, although it did take about 2 hours, or 10 km/h ... since I want to do the TdH in less than 7 hours (and preferably less than six) I will need to average more than 20 km/h (23.33 for the 6 hour target). I guess I will need to get a bit of training in by then, so pottering around Åland in the summer will help a bit, and work up to 80 km rides by September... 

As it happens 20 km/h is also the slowest of the seven organised groups; the fastest being 35 km/h - a speed I can probably only manage down-hill with a following wind, which unfortunately is a bit tricky to organise on a circular course.

Well it seemed a good idea at the time.  I'll keep you posted on how my saddle sores develop.

On yer bike

Personal human powered vehicle

We met with an old friend of Konna's recently, who started working for Finland's central bank the week before Lehman Brother's hit the blender (talk about in at the deep end!).  Amongst other things we found out that the couple are on a sport and work-out kick at the momement, training for the 'Tour de Helsinki' (140km) and the Swedish Vätternrundan (300km).  Apart from being impressed, this reminded me I used to cycle a lot (maybe 100km a week), and did the London-Brighton a few times (only a measly 87km) and had at the time wanted to do something bigger... but never did anything about it. Having dragged my bike here (at great expense) I really should make more use of it.

* * *

I can really do without extra reminders of the fairly large round number of years that my birth anniversary reaches this year. But free health checks are not to be sneezed at I suppose, even if they are age related.

The capable, and English speaking, student nurse took me through the blood test results ("Well done, they are very good" she congratulated, like I had been practising for them), went through some lifestyle risk questionnaires (fairly low), checked my blood pressure and body fat ratio. Slightly high BP, and (unsurprisingly) I need to exercise more and lose some weight. "I used to cycle a lot" I said "but now hardly at all". "Well it's a good form of exercise.  It's also good to have a target to motivate yourself."

* * *

We scored free tickets for the excitingly named Go!Expo - the annual sport and outdoors exhibition in Helsinki.  Apart from avoiding the golf area, dodging people practicing casting fishing rods (indoors), being somewhat freaked by the gun display on the hunting stand, and tripping over several dozen display tents, I was mainly lusting over exotic carbon-fibre bicycles and collecting information for cycling holidays in Åland and Gotland. And then there was the stand for the 'Tour de Helsinki' in September. 

Hmm, do I feel an idea creaking into existence?

Finnish studs

so... what exactly is this a picture of!? nokian talvirenkaat

Well the title might have generated a few unusual search hits, and you may be worrying what exactly that aggressive and phallic looking thing is (especially if you were trying to get here), but don't worry it's nothing like that - nor is this post about a suomea remake of the 1970's film of Jackie Collins' book...   

Instead, ask yourself - if you could hear winter approaching what would it sound like?

Since the beginning of the month, walking alongside the roads as the evenings draw in, I have increasingly heard the winter creeping up on us.  That is the crunching-hiss of studded talvirenkaat (winter tyres) on passing cars, almost like a distant gravel drive.  Studded winter tyres are allowed from 1 November to the end of March, and winter tyres (not necessarily studded) are obligitory between 1 December and Feb 28th (or whenever weather conditions are considered bad enough to need them). I imagine if we actually had a car that tonttu creature would be complaining we haven't changed tyres yet...

Other essential winter items are engine block heaters, so the car will actually start (so that's what those posts in all the carparks are), and super anti-freeze in the windscreen wash (there is one called superpiss - I kid you not).  Passing the Finnish winter (ice) driving test helps too I guess. It is often said that the combination of snow, ice, lonely gravel roads, studded tyres, and the terrifying 'I was here first' rule for joining traffic, is the reason for Finland's unsurpassed output of rally and race drivers (well except this year). 

Luckily for us (admittedly occasional) cyclists there also studded winter bike tyres available (as shown in the picture if you hadn't realised) - and if you have ever gone down on a bike on ice or snow you will appreciate that.  I just need to decide if I am really going to take my bike out in the cold & dark before buying some... I mean there's lots else to do inside...

September's architecture corner

Viikin Kirkko: From Viikki church and school

We cycled* out to Viikki today and had a look at award winning Viikinkirkko (Viikki Church) and the nearby Viikki(?) School which looks like a classic street & finger plan. Not the best weather for building photography, but pictures on Picasa (and the uusi kuvia/new pictures thingy over there somewhere anyway---> 

For the benefit of the architecturally minded amongst you, I'll try to post a bit more info on each building later when I've done some research. Actually the whole Viikki ecological development area is quite interesting, so maybe more on that too.  So watch this space. 

Which reminds me, a couple of weeks ago we did a day long cycle trip, ending up in Kotka (before you all start measuring the distances I'll point out we didn't start in Helsinki!) where we saw the ramping wedge of the Merikeskus Vellamo (Maritime Centre) by architect Ilmari Lahdelma. I know someone is about to mention Yokahama Ferry Terminal about now, so I'll save you the trouble. It's actually a pretty stunning building (although the exhibitions reputedly still need developing) and I know the form, barcode type colour bands and printed glass panels will push a lot of buttons for several of my ex-colleagues.  

From Kotka Merikeskus Vellamo

Here are some more pictures, another grey day I'm afraid. Funnily enough it also features in the latest ARK magazine, which is the Finnish architectural review, which dropped through our letter box this morning as I was doing this post.

----

*Yes that means that our bikes made it here in one piece, and not only that, I have finally had my broken suspension forks replaced (although I chickened out of fitting them myself in the end) - well its only a year since they seized during our cycling tour of the Turku archipelago ringastie route... Hmmm, Turku, isn't that in Finland...?

[text corrections 14/09]