Oh and I can't wait to visit THAT pizza place either

Trackleaders is up, starts on Saturday
http://trackleaders.com/rovaniemi17

Currently in Helsinki airport, it's +7C and sunny 5hr transfer to deal with

The 5hr stop-over is a bit of a bind - spent it last year in the bar with two guys from Scotland (doing the 300 on foot) drinking g&t's slowly. Budget's a bit tighter this year, it'll be Burger King

Weather forecast looking more favourable that last year - light dusting of snow over hard snow/ice should make it a bit more rideable

Keep us posted on conditions Whitestone!

Enjoy it everyone!

Dovebiker, what frame do you ride?

Best of fun to all.

Custom Chinese titanium of my own design - only regret is that having designed it over 2 years ago to run 5" tyres before 2XLs were available, the seatstays are just a bit too tight.

Just ensconced in hotel/hostel.

A couple of pints of the local brew was enough for me

Taxi driver was saying that there has been very little snow this year and generally it's been relatively mild with just one week at -30C

whitestone wrote:Just ensconced in hotel/hostel.

A couple of pints of the local brew was enough for me

Taxi driver was saying that there has been very little snow this year and generally it's been relatively mild with just one week at -30C

You're lucky, the last taxi driver I had there watched ski jumping whilst driving!

Guess a couple was enough due to the prices?!

'Race' day...

voodoo_simon wrote:'Race' day...

Gulp!

Don't know what the second half of your route will be like but the stuff I've ridden on so far is fast. Alex thinks that the winners from two years ago would be under ten hours today. There's more fire road as well.

See you down at the start, I'm number 109

Good luck all - have fun out there.....

vaguely exciting. Have a great ride guys. :)

Edit - Damn you swear filter!

Conditions are fast and not too cold so should be a pleasant ride for all.

Damn it, I should've been there!

Bugger, I've lost a KOM!

First rider home on the 150 already

Just got back to the room. Finished in 12:59 or 13:00. Conditions were generally very fast plus there's nearly 20Km new fireroad. Temps were fine during the day but dropped rapidly after sunset, at the last checkpoint they said it was -16C, certainly felt on the parky side

The northern lights came out just as I dropped back on to the river before the last checkpoint

Congrats Bob, good effort

Northern lights are a bonus!

Nice one!

Nice.

While sat on the sofa nursing a cold I'm rather jealous, well done!

Just wandered into town to get some breakfast to discover that Lapp Sunday trading is very relaxed and apart from the local equivalent of Spar, nothing opens until midday. Better pack the bikes then

Currently -13C and it feels balmy so last night must have been pretty cold I think I dropped into a frost hollow just before the last checkpoint last night as my hands went from warm to blocks of ice in the space of 200m.

The current leader of the 300Km race was ahead of me the whole of the first 140Km, caught up with him at the last checkpoint, mad as a box of frogs, he wasn't planning on sleeping


The 66Km race was won by a Finnish woman who looked like she was in the national Olympic team. Cath was third lady and she won her first cup since schooldays she was well made up.

JS - hope your cold sorts itself out.

Cath was third lady and she won her first cup since schooldays

Fantastic - good effort all round.

Cutting a long story short, I scratched

Hinted before the race but I was a bit undertrained and you can't wing 300KM! Temperatures at the check point I slept at went down to -25C, so a bit nippy

Despite being undertrained, most my food froze, so even if I wanted to, I couldn't really carry on.

Scratched at 100KM, but cycled back, so ended up doing 140ish KM in the end.

Was good to see you Bob and well done to Cath on medalling

Off to bed now, will post up some pictures soon

Is Trackleaders http://trackleaders.com/rovaniemi17 having a wobbly? The guy I caught up with at the last checkpoint on the 150, Jussi Karjalainen, who finished on Sunday evening (I think he was the winner) is still shown as active.