Finlandia-hiihto 2008

March 7, 2008

For those of us who spent the previous week-end in Estonia visiting Tallinn instead of skiing Tartu Maraton (cancelled), sights of scarce snow over Finnish landscape seemed like a deliverance when setting foot in Helsinki. Indeed, even in Lahti snow was scarce, and the few days before race, who saw alternance of icy tracks on Tuesday, fresh snow on Wednesday and heavy rain just the Friday before the race left moderate hope about the race conditions for the week-end.

A slight drop in temperature during the night from Friday to Saturday turned however skier’s hopes into reality, as it was just enough to bring a little fresh snow and cold enough to keep tracks hard and even icy in some sections. Therefore despite lack of sunny weather, the race was rather pleasant, easy and fast, with a winner’s time of 2:04 mn for 50K, and most of skiers were able to double-pole themselves in the second part of the race up to Tapanila, where only a few km and steep uphills waited them before the finish line in Olympic stadium, which is always an unforgettable moment. For the accompanying persons Lahti is definitely a must, as this is one (the only one ?) race where they can watch both start and finish comfortably and warmly seated in the stadium cafeteria or in the stadium seats. The proximity of town center also makes it an ideal place for both skiers and their company.

On Sunday, conditions were somewhat worse for the 50K skating, and almost all skiers were slower than the previous day, mainly because of fresh snow everywhere, turning very wet in the last 10K, which slowed down everybody. The winner’s time was 2:13, which is 9 mn slower than the day before, and remarkably enough it was the same competitor (Varis from Finland) who won both 50K races in 2 days. This enabled those of us who ran also both races to compare themselves to the same winner, which is rather uncommon. One of the few skiers who considerably improved their performance though between both days was our friend and IAWLS Executive Comity Member Minoru Matsuyama, who skied the 50K skating 45 mn faster than the day before. But the truth is that Minoru did not have any time to waste on Sunday because the taxi was expecting him just at race finish to drive him to Helsinki airport, where he had to take plane for Stockholm then car to Mora in order to run Vasaloppet Oppet Spar the next day !! 190 km of races in 3 days in 2 countries, that is a real challenge !!

This page was last revised on April 26, 2008