Bike Races

Andrew has been cycling for a couple of years now, especially after he purchased a good road bike, and has now become comfortable enough to compete in some races. Of course he participated in Vatternrundan in Sweden with my dad and brother, but now he's decided to compete on home turf.

He did a Vantaa bike race to practice his strategy in his first mass start. Vatternrundan had like 28000 cyclists, but the start times were spread out over a 12 hour period. The Vantaa bike race was a few hundred racers, but they all started at the same time. He participated in this race with his co-worker Kari, who unfortunately had some bad luck with his wheels and could not finish.

Andrew was pleased with his race, especially since it was pouring rain and very windy that day. He believes he made some tactical errors but this race was a practice for him and he said that he learned a lot. Here is a photo of him at the start of his race.

He ultimately was practicing for the Tour de Helsinki, where they finished in the Velodrome (another first for Andrew) and Andrew did FANTASTIC!! He stayed in the lead pack the entire time. Unfortunately he was the leader for the last 15kms until the others, who were drafting behind him, flew past him right before the finish line. Jerks. Another lesson learned.

I'm very proud of Andrew and his accomplishments. Poor Kari had more bad luck with his wheels in the Tour de Helsinki, so instead of drinking beer in the sauna to celebrate, Kari drank beer in the sauna to mourn the race!!

For now, Andrew is training indoors for the dark Finnish winter months. But the kids and I are looking forward to cheering him on next year for whichever races he decides to participate.

Well done, Andrew!