Category: Tour de Finlande 2010

Go to the Tour de Finlande 2010 main page 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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

Watch the full roadmap of the tour 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 […]

Watch the full roadmap of the tour 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 […]

Watch the full roadmap of the tour 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 […]

Watch the full roadmap of the tour 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 […]

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, […]

Watch the full roadmap of the tour 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 […]