Christmas ride at Kalpis

It´s three days to Christmas and no snow in Finland! That´s really rare although it´s good for cyclists.
We spent saturday in Kalpis bikepark with our new team member Tuukka Westerholm (in picture, 12 years old). There wasn´t not much ice either so conditions were near finnish summer.
Helmet cam footage attached. Oskar seems to be really fast on his M sized Zerode!

Oskar took the overall of NKC cup

Oskar took the first place in NKC cup overall after finishing second by 0,1 sec at last race in Messilä.
Results: http://mountainbike.fi/vauhtijaosto/cup-pisteet/nappulakumicup-2013-pistetaulukko

Finnish DH national Final Levi

Last round of national series was held in lapland, atleast 1000 kilometers straight to north from Helsinki. Oskar Vuori took easy win by 8 seconds. He was 7 seconds ahead of second best on seedings but he still bettered his time on finals. Sure that is the thing which is expected when we are talking about young juniors. They are constantly evolving and that's why it's important to keep pushing and not to lay back and think "now i am ahead of everyone else and i don't need to work so hard anymore". Oskar is still recovering from his hand injury and i am sure that this is not the case with him, there is still so much more he is able to deliver and i think he has a huge desire to push himself as far as he can.
My run there was ok. Bar has got raised on every race whole season long and this wasn't any different. Racing was really tight and got 4th place. Again i wasn't far away from podium, about 0,1 sec from 3rd and something like 0,3 sec from 2nd. Results

Come back weekend

Oskar raced two NKC cup races on last weekend to get few timed laps before last finnish national at Levi. First one was in Forssa wherr Oskar finished first. Another one was at Meriteijo there he finished second. Broken hand seems to get better and better! I was with Pskar at Meriteijo and finished 5th. it was pretty solid run, race was just so tight and i was 1,7 seconds behind the winner, Jari Karjalainen. Here is my helmet cam from Meriteijo.

6th at Finnish national championships

Not the place what i was expecting with that kind of run. Actually the level of competition was something i have never seen before in finland, there was so many riders in just few seconds and just tenths in between each rider. Track was really good and fysical with few hard places and that´s why it is hard to imagine how tight racing was.
My run was pretty good, only one little mistake as i ran into a rock on last turn which was pointing towards finish line.
Next i will be racing XCE (cross country eliminator) finnish champs on friday night in centrum of Hyvinkää. Should be good fun and good training!

Here is top 10 results from Messilä:

Aki Färm 1:03.13

Matti Lehikoinen 1:03.41

Jari Karjalainen 1:03.55

Mika Sukanen 1:03.77

Mikko Lampén 1:04.19

Antti Lampén 1:04.32

Petrik Jurs 1:04.79

Visa Linnala 1:05.05

Ari Kurvinen 1:06.05

Ville Ormo 1:06.18

Last but not least, here is few really nice photos by Elise Kulmala

Preparing for national champs

Finnish national championships will be held at Messilä on saturday. I am waiting for the race and doing the best i can to get ready for it. On wednesday we already went to Messilä to see what's the track is like and i felt pretty good about it. Track is best there have ever been and it was fun to ride.

For Oskar this was 3rd time on DH bike since he broke his arm and it is still lacking strength. it seems like Oskar is not able to race on saturday but we will see after friday trainings how is it. 

Today i will do some swimming to recover from yesterday and to give movement for all the joints.

Should be good!

Here is helmet cam run i did yesterday. I was testing inside and outsides to get to know which lines are the fastest, this one is all about inside lines.

Finnish national series #1 Hyvinkää

I got 4th place at my home race. I have been pretty ill for a week and i am currently eating antibiotics to get rid of it. Breathing was pretty hard as there was plenty of pedalling on the track. Although i am pretty happy how i performed, race was tight and my time wasn´t far away from the winner.


Top 5.

1. Mika sukanen 0:57.60
2. Matti Lehikoinen  0:58.47
3. Visa Linnala  0:58.70
4. Antti Lampén  0:59.00
5. Aki Färm  0:59.42

13th at Winterberg GDC #1

i got solid 13th place from IXS Winterberg German Downhill Cup #1!

pretty happy with outcome even though my race run didn´t feel that great.
On qualifications i had to stop for about 7 seconds before finish line to get earlier start on mondays final. My flight left 20:40 from Frankfurt and i just made it! If i didn´t stop or would have stopped for just 5 seconds i would have missed flight :D 
Finals day was rainy and track got very muddy. As i said my run wasn´t perfect, i missed one important line before long flat section and i lost a bit of speed. Allthough i knew that in those kind of conditions everybody else might have problems aswell so i kept pushing, glad i did. after qualifying 99th i didn´t feel too comfortable taking hotseat only with about 3,5 seconds, i simply didn´t think that was enough. I hadn´t time to stay on hotseat so i told some guy to stay up there because i have to catch a flight.

Results: http://ixsdownhillcup.com/images/results/2013/Results_GDC_Final_Winterberg_2013_komplett.pdf

i´ll put some videos here when blogger start finding videos from youtube...

Interim report

While i am preparing for Winterberg GDC (at this point it's all about trying to get rid of this god damn flu) Oskar is enjoying attention he gets from girls. Just kidding, he is already eager to get back on his bike. Elise Kulmala took few pretty cool pictures as she met Oskar at Kalpis bike park. I think she borrows Oskars bike until her own Zerode arrives.

Bad news

I am sad to tell that Oskar broke his wrist on thursday. He was riding at Kalpis bike park in a bit rainy weather when his jump ended up being front heavy. He landed on his head and took the biggest hit with his hands. That means i had to book flights and rental car for myself as winterberg GDC/rookies cup will be held on next weekend. It is bummer to go there alone but injured are the nature of this sport and you just have to deal with it.
Six weeks and Oskar should be cast free and his wrist should be unbolted.

Training for IXS cup race

After Spain we have spent one day riding together at Kalpis and next saturday we will have one final DH day before Germany. At Kalpis we focused on corners and carrying speed out of the turns. Next saturday it´s about all breathing and being relaxed on bike.

Oskar in Kalpis, click to enlarge. Photo by Marko Turunen

Back from Spain

It's been a while since we came back from Spain but it's been busy few weeks. Training camp was success. We did two days of riding (10-15 runs on 3-10min tracks per day) and then one resting day with one hour of jogging. Then three days of  riding with one 45min stretching session and then one resting day in Gibraltar if i remember right. Then one day of riding. Here is one chest cam clip from Spain.

Tires for training camp

Velotrade gave us some Schwalbe tires for our training camp in Malaga. Thanks!

Winter Cup RD3 Antikkala

Antikkala ended winter cup series and Oskar took 3 out of 3 and won M-14 winter cup overall.
I did ok run but it wasn't enough for podium, i was 5th.
Results:http://www.tulospalvelu.profiili.fi/SIRA_Files/downloads/SAAPUNEET/2013/kuopio_23.03.htm

Chest cam footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Zd_PbmTIc

Winter cup RD2/3 Uuperi

Our first race together. Oskar took win in m-14 class and i got 2nd place in men elite class. Both had solid runs and riding was fun all day long!
Full results: http://www.kymiantiflow.net/rojut/uuperiwinter2013.pdf

Picture of Oskar on his Zerode and my chest cam run underneath it

Another bike here in Finland

We got second Zerode on wednesday, looks good! You can find us and our bikes at Hamina next saturday as wintercup rd2 is held there.

Oskar's first race on his new bike

Oskar attended first winter cup race in Tampere. He took clear first place in m-14 and would have placed second in m-16 class.
Results

Second photo by Kosti Koistinen

oskar's bike ready

We built up Oskar's bike and it is ready for a ride! Feels awesome, dorado seems to be verry good so far. Hope brakes working so nicely aswell.
Still waiting for second frame, then we are all set up for next season!

Sunshine Distribution on board for upcoming season

Sunshine Distribution will help us as european distributor of Manitou. We will be running dorado forks for 2013 season. Should be good! Thanks Sunshine Distribution!

Visit their site: http://www.sunshinedistribution.dk/