TONI “THE GREAT” HELMINEN

Decided to do B200 because why not. The weather was clear, cloudy and cold. Luckily, no rain. I'm a fair weather cyclist so if there's rain, I'm out. The route was quite good. Light traffic. Though high oil prices due to wars might have something to do w/ it. Wahoo ROAM v2 still has some problems with route and the screen is quite small. Well, on to the race. I had no idea who I was racing with. It was super fast start from the gun. It was not the smartest thing to be blazing at 50kph in city area. Well, what can you do? I just followed the others to get some insight what am I dealing with. The "peloton" got thinner and thinner. Until at 40km there were only 3 of us. I got cramps in my legs due to cold weather. And decided to drop out to maintain my own pace. Should have done it sooner. It's quite dangerous to ride at some randoms' pace. To be honest if not B200 I wouldn't have ridden this thing, too cold for me. Until the 1st stamp place 97km, I enjoyed nasty headwind. On the way back, I got a very nice tailwind. Didn't want to waste any time at gas stations, so I only ate bars from my pockets. Lost a water bottle due to bumpy road by the way. Only loss. At Padasjoki, there were some nice road side cheering. On my way back I thought at some point ~130km I missed the 2nd stamp point. Stopped and checked. Thank God. It's at 168km. So full gas ahead. Then I noticed on my rear radar something is slowly catching up. I was like: "Oh fuck, there goes my brevet podium". I thought the Russian duo were ahead and I'm getting swallowed by "peloton". But it was the duo. I had overtaken at some point. They passed me and I couldn't really follow. But I decided to race hard until the finish line and see where I'm at. There was a car fucking around at some descent and I had to touch brakes. And lost some seconds there. I just rode hard until the finish. Nobody in the finish. Took the last stamp on my card. That was it. And thank God I did race hard. The peloton was only 20 minutes away. So my season's first victory. And my first B200 victory! To be honest, this was my 2nd road ride this year. I wasn't quite ready for hard ride like this. And I'm still inside my big training block. And I have dropped a lot of weight. Which has already bring nice victories this season. When you are carrying less weight you are simply faster. My Tideace R053D bike worked great. Tho I'm still adjusting position. I used 4-season instead of GP5000. To make sure no punctures. Took a little hit with rolling resistance. link

I organized a 300 km unsupported solo World Championships in Parkano. I announced the race on twitter. The total time must be under 9h to be worth of title World Champion. Massive problems the whole time. In the end I ended up with: 9h unsupported solo ITT WCH @ 301.25 km. link

This time, the weather was awful. The worst ever. Cold and massive rainshowers. Also massive whirly wind. No tailwind, all headwind 24/7. I was dreaming about hitting 800km/500 miles @ 24h. And "finishing" my 24h career on high note. Tho I will always keep riding. But once you hit your ceiling. You hit your ceiling. Also using my new bike: Tideace R053D with ICAN Aero 52mm. Also using latex innertubes for the first time in this race. The bike is superfast. I did the first hour at 38km/h. I was thinking about crushing 800km @ 24h pretty easy. Then got massive rainshowers and fiddling w/ rain gear took too much time. Not to mention the effect on cdA of such flappy clothes. link

I decided to ride unsupported solo on round about and ended up w/ world record 424km @ 12h. Avg. speed: 36.4 km/h. Legs were just super strong. Carried all food. Only took water 2 times. Super hard ride. link

I hit 400 km @ 12h for the first time. Result 424 km @ 12h. Super hard ride. Avg. speed: 35.9 km/h. I made two 200 km loops. Took food and drinks at midpoint. link

My first ever 48h race. The strategy was to aim 1000 km+, which I thought would be pretty easy. The race started with pretty good weather. Not super warm and kinda windy. There were very few participants. Which I can fully understand. I was in great shape. Also 48h World Champion title was on the line. SO super motivated. I started with 174 km stint. The first pause to eat and drink. My first 12h was 340 km. Which was pretty good. The first night was super cold. I tried to cycle in basically winter gear but no avail. My speed dropped to 24 kph at 3 am. I decided to take a 2-hour nap since there's no point cycling so slow. I woke up at 5am. And the weather was perfect. The sun was shining. The latter 24h was absolutely perfect. My first 24h was 585 km and latter 24h was 630 km. In the end I got big hallucinations due to extreme weariness. Ended up w/ 1215.3km @ 48h. And a title 48h unsupported solo World Champion. My career's second masterpiece. link

I decided to try double everesting since I already have many 10k's. The hill is too small thus too many turns. But in the end got the job done. The climbing isn't the sucky part. It's going 60+ kph downhill at night. If you hit a deer or something, you're fucked. link

This race kinda bittersweet. The autumn was cold and I couldn't get enough outdoor rides in. I did not have a great plan or anything. I just tried to improve my old 704km record. Well, the weather was cold and super strong winds. I fought like a lion for 13h. I was kinda in pace to improve a little bit. But experienced knee pain. Then pain in back. Then got rain showers in addition to strong winds and cold weather. It was the last straw that broke the camel's back. I tried to hang onto 30 kph and it slipped away slowly from my hands at 13h mark. There was nothing to do. You are basically praying the weather gets better and you'll get up to speed. I would have been happy with 720 km / 24h this time. I was not in the best shape to be honest. Took a long pause to be able to even continue. After a few hours of rest. I just did the rest w/ my left leg. Of course my speed wasn't up to the task. When using only one leg. Won men's category but not the overall. It was time to redeem myself. link

My career's first masterpiece. The weather was perfect. No wind. Very warm. Nice sunshine all day. I didn't even use long sleeves at night. It was so warm. Tho it was warm and sweating was at maximum. I was drinking liquids non-stop about 20 bottles _750ml_. And this time I finally hit 700km mark. Tho I got 700 km w/ 15 minutes remaining. All self-supported and totally solo. I knew that this would be the golden chance to hit big numbers also make the track record. It would be pretty easy to draft a car or other people to 900km. But when you going around 4km loop when you are facing lots of nasty headwind every lap. It's a different ball game. In the end total time: exact 24h and 704.84km. And a title: Unsupported solo 24h World Champion. Took a week to recover from this one. Due to position on my bike was too aggressive. link

The weather was rainy partly cloudy. Not ideal. At the beginning there was nice weather. And my speed was pretty good which gave me hope. But then there was massive rainshowers and fiddling with rain gear took too much time. In the end I ended up w/ 611km @ 24h and victory. Which was pretty meh result. But in that weather it was good. First time using my own build OG-EVKIN tempobike. Which for low price was really fast bike. link

The day was cold and windy. My bike was aluminum CX bike. Not so fast on tarmac. And other kit was not up to the task. Also massive knee pain at the end while trying to hit 600km / 24h. Got only 585km. Victory and my first unsupported solo 24h world champion title. But still quite bitter feeling by failing to hit 600km. Which isn't all that difficult to be honest. Gave my best, like every time I race. link