Rapha’s Festive 500 – day 1
Last Summer I had a go at the Rapha Rise during the Tour de France – it’s still much nicer riding it than watching it right? Completed 16000 hms while visiting the French Pyrenees but failed to “finish if off” when back in Finland.
So here we go again for the Rapha Festive 500, Ride to Redemption. Not exactly great conditions around Helsinki, actually a solid -5C and snow would have been better, but we’ll give it a go anyways.
Day 1 started off with a 55k cyclocross ride – road bikes are obviously out of the question – on the usual roads and tracks. First time on the bike in two weeks after a flu – heart rate could have beaten the average techno DJ and the legs felt like, well… Christmas pudding. Another 50k on Christmas Day and a longer 100k on Boxing Day should get us (almost) halfway. Garmin details of Day 1 are here
Respect to all Rapha 500 riders and especially those in Scandinavia!
Rapha 500 - Day 1 Vantaankoski
Grand Raid Christalp 2011
Grand Raid 2011, a set on Flickr.
Grand Raid Verbier – 7 days left
© Sportograf 2010
7 days to go to the mother of all marathons – 68kms & 3000hms. The views are pretty impressive and intimidating.
maapat2010′s photostream
maapat2010′s photostream on Flickr.
Recent mtb trip to Nuuksio while preparing for the Christalp in Verbier and some older materials from December last year at the Alhambra.
2010 biking season
While most of Europe is preparing for the 2010 biking season they can’t even keep the biking lanes snow free here in Helsinki. Today I went for a 40k ride on snowy roads amidst the car traffic. Not that nice and the avg speed of 19.7k/h on my cyclocross bike says it all. I’m eagerly looking forward to my training week at the end of March in Belgium and the Sunday stop at the Tour of Flanders.
On the mtb marathon front this year the first mark on the calendar is the Cape Epic. No revenge for the 2007 participation this year but always nice to follow and this year there are even more top class riders participating. Hope they again have the Polar-GPS tracking installed so we can follow the race in real time.
Full support this year goes out to the longtime buddies from teamskelle participating in the Transrockies 2010. Yes we are a little envious because it is one of the top 5 stage marathons in the world and every biker wants to participate. I’m sure Fili and Skelle will achieve their goals (first half of the pack) – their training plan looks impressive. Follow and support them on the teamskelle site!!
Myself I’m planning a Transvosgiènne end of June, more info to come.
