8 riders taking part to the Finnish Championships, that this year will be raced in a partly cobbled route, in the whereabouts of Lappeenranta. 6 of them are DeLaval riders, the other 2 are loaned out DeLaval riders. I foresee an exciting race. Not.
Lehtinen (DeLaval), Manninen (DeLaval), Paajanen (Vesuvio, but technically DeLaval) are the 3 men in the break. Lehtinen doesn’t have a bike.
The 5 behind them give 0 flying fs about the break and just chill. They don’t even bother counting their advantage already, but it’s somewhere around 20 minutes with 20 to go. Also DeLaval can’t afford more than 3 bikes.
We need to wait until 2 kilometers to go to see something different from the riders chatting about the weather. Manninen (DeLaval) attacks. The other two pretend they can’t follow him.
Under 1 km to go for him.
He holds about 15 seconds on the two of them. Paajanen (Vesulaval) got a small edge on Lehtinen (DeLaval).
What an entertaining win for Manninen (DeLaval), he just taught the opposition how to ride a bike etc. etc.
Paajanen (Vesuvio) 2nd, Lehtinen (DeLaval) 3rd. The other give up with still more than 20 to go, nice job. Must have been the super tough route right?
The same riders will be taking the start to the TT. Pokala (Yeah, DeLaval) is the clear favourite for this year’s edition as well given that all the others suck. Vastaranta is a good rider all round though, could this make a difference?
Vastaranta is the only rider setting a noteworthy time so far. He has got 15 seconds on everyone else after the 2nd checkpoint.
…until Pokala leaves and shatters all his hopes. His advantage touches 30 seconds after the 1st intermediate, 1 minute after the 2nd one.
As both already got past the 3rd intermediate – Vastaranta is now 1 minute and 20 seconds behind – Pokala can even see his teammate in front of him.
He defends his title and well, he does it in style. Sammi Pokala can’t overtake the puncheur but he still wins it with 1 minute and 46 seconds on him. Nice work!
