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No, there's no mistake in the title. This stage of my Tour de Finlande has been exactly the Tour the Helsinki, which is a community ride of 140 km around the Helsinki metropolitan area. I knew about the race already the last year, but I was too late to participate, as I read about it the day it took place. So this year I had already enrolled in May, just to be sure I could make it. And it has been really unforgettable, so I'll try to be as detailed as possible about this day.

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The history of Ruotsinpyhtää, literally Pyhtää of Sweden, traces back to 1743 when the Kingdom of Sweden – having back then the sovereignty all over Finland – lost the Russo-Swedish War, and had to cede to Russia the part of south-eastern Finland up to the river Kymijoki. This meant that the town of Pyhtää was divided in two, and Ruotsinpyhtää got its name being the part of the town that remained in Finland, that is, under the Swedish crown. Nowadays the places have still different names, and Ruotsinpyhtää is famous for its old ironworks, typical factories especially here in the south. The museum was open until the end of August, so I missed for a couple of days. Have to get back here in the proper summer.

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As I did for the mosquitoes, I won't comment anymore on the hardness of a punched air mattress. Can't do anything about it in the middle of the forest. Can't even put it in the water to find the hole, as that's one of the few things I try hard to keep dry. Funnily enough, the last night was dry, but as soon as I got out of the tent this morning to get to the toilet – that is, I walked to the tree about five metres from the tent – the first drops of rain arrived. And again I got stuck waiting for it to stop.

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Big changes in just a few days. First of all it seems the hot weather has gone for good. I just took back the long johns that I used in Lapland, as the temperature went down to 14-15 degrees the last week. One month ago it was 35, so the different is not that small.

So, the last time I blogged something I was in Turku. From there I quickly went by train back to Helsinki as time was running out. Basically I had to be in Espoo for the Espoo Ciné film festival, which ended the day before yesterday. During this time I didn't drop cycling, as living in Helsinki I did my 20-25 km per day going back and forth between the capital and Espoo.

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And with today's leg I reached 4000 km. I admit I really can't explain the feeling, it is a bit like living in a different dimension. Just to make things clear: the amount of km is really a lot, but this is not an extreme sport, nor a competition. You just need time and not necessarily a pre-training, the muscles will come little by little, you can decide how many km you want to do in a day, and the speed you want to keep. In any case I'm still impressed, as I had never done anything like this before.

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It's unbelievable how many people I have met in the Midnight Sun Film Festival: today my big thanks go to Kaisa who saved me from another hard night on a punctured air mattress giving me shelter at hers in Kustavi. I definitely should get a new mattress, no way I can find the puncture.

Today the trip on road has been quite short, as I had to get help by a total amount of seven ferries: this is Saaristo Rengastie, the wonderful Archipelago Trail, which brought me in the heart of the Turku Archipelago.

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I had a wonderful sleep last night: a very quite forest next to a not so trafficked road. But maybe I would have slept anyway as yesterday I've been awake for 18 hours. This basically means that I woke up quite late and had everything packed only around 10:30. The first stop was just a few km away: Sauvo is a small town with a huge church in stone. As a matter of fact the roof of the church was huge, almost twice the height of the walls: when I saw it from a distance I must admit I thought it was a castle. It's a pity today was Sunday and there was a mass going on: I just had a quick look as I didn't want to disturb the prayers with my immoral atheist soul.

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The sea break didn't really affect my muscles, as today's leg ended after 130 km. I have to admit anyway that the wind was very good; can't say the same for the weather, though.

The day started very early, as the rest of the crew on the boat wanted to leave at 6 a.m. in order to cover a reasonable distance. Which basically meant that I had to start cycling at the same time as they dropped me off the boat

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Ok, I won't count it as a proper leg of the tour as a matter of km, but since the bike was with me and after all I have been also in duty for steering the boat, I'd say that it should be counted at least as a part of the tour. A big sailing boat is not very fast, it is more or less comparable with the speed of a bicycle, actually a bit less. The scenery is however quite different and also the feeling when you stay on board.

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It has been a nice long weekend without cycling since a long time. I have spent a wonderful time at Niilo's cottage watching good films and having a lot of sauna, swim and fun with good friends. Which is even better when you are cycling just on your own for such a long time! I left this morning after a four-day break. The weather has been unstable for the whole weekend and so was today. Showers every now and then and generally cloudy weather the whole way to Uusikaupunki and even after that.

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