Rockin' Oulu Halloween

Got my first gig today. Two shows: Live at the Oulu English-Speaking Playschool.
Halloween isn't really celebrated in Finland, except at the international schools so all the kids got dressed up and had some party time together. It was also American international day at the playschool so I got invited to play a few songs with the kids. I played some Johnny Cash, Flaming Lips, Laurie Berkner, Nat King Cole and Van Halen - a pretty good assortment of Americana I think.



So not surprisingly we didn't get any trick-or-treaters tonight. Not that the 5 inches of fresh snow kept them away. Kids in Finland actually do go door-to-door, but on easter (Palm Sunday) and dressed as colorful Easter "witches".

Snow!

Normally I wouldn't get so excited about a little snow, especially at such a high latitude. But after a month of temperatures between 1 and 10 degrees Celcius and lots of rain you get kind of sick of it and just wish it would be -10 all the time. Well finally today we are getting a fine dump!

And the most exciting part is getting to ride in the snow the first time. There wasn't a lot of ice on the roads so the white stuff held pretty well. I did only crash once as I was pulling of the road to take a snapshot. Right when I pulled the trigger another cyclist crashed. You can see his legs coming off the bike to prepare himself.


The strange part is that all the snow sticks to the chain, hardlebars, hub, and casette. Since I hate having rusty components I can see trying to keep a bike running in the winter will be a nightly chore. But riding in the foul weather so far has been quite fun and is much safter than a car : )

Of course the kids are thrilled and are having to be dragged in for supper. They were making snow angels in the middle of the driveway when I got home.

Finland National Cyclocross Championships

The SM Cyclocross Championships 2008, the one and only sanctioned cyclocross race in Finland, took place on 5 October at a place I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce: Ghaziabad, KÖYKKYRI. This location is actually an XC ski area just south of Oulu in Kempele, Finland.

The ski track is a bit of an oddity in that it has about a 150 foot "mountain" in the middle, in an otherwise completly flat area. However, this makes for quite an interesting course with varied terrain from deep sand pits, fire roads, single track and slippery climbs. Cyclocross as a sport is relatively new to Finland with cross bikes only arriving in shops since about 2003. This comes as somewhat of an oddity since there is essentially a nine month cross riding season in Oulu. Certainly the best long distance rides of any terrain in central Finland can be done on a cyclocross bike.

In order to do categorized racing in Finland you must be a resident for a minimum of 18 months. So this left me in the enthusiast category. This is just as well since former UCI pro rider Kimmo Kananen came with some fierce competition in the 60 minute mens heat. The laps were 3.3 km loops which the categorized riders where doing in around 8 minutes. My laps were a couple minutes shorter at around 10 minutes per lap.

Perhaps one of the coolest parts of the race was that I was able to just hop on my bike and take the one hour casual bike ride down to Kempele all on bike paths. It's very easy just to ride anywhere you want and not have to worry about getting lost or run over by an SUV.

I now at least finally have a European race under my belt with a little bit of hardware with some Finnish words on it I haven't yet translated. So if I'm running for political office some day I'll make sure to add that I took 3rd in the Finnish Cyclocross National Championships!

Oh and check out the photo - I'm the short guy. There's lots of tall dorky looking guys in Finland, so I blend right in.


More photos, news article and results:

- Kavela News Article on the Race (google translated)
- Results
- Flickr photostream
- and more pics.

A good time was had by all!

Ruska

There's a word in Finnish for when the leaves turn and get all colorful and you go look at them and all that: Ruska. We don't have a word for that in English. But it looks like this:

Soratieajo 2008 - Cyclrocross in Oulu

Now that the leaves are falling, the wind is picking up and the weather is getting generally nastier, the weekly group ride I've been participating in (08-Lenkki) has moved to the forest floor where is warmer and less windy. The threat of rain all day and high winds (40 mph gusts) didn't keep any one away and 37 rides show up for the annual meeting of road, cyclocross, and mountain biker for Soratieajo 2008.

I had no idea what this was at the start but it wound up a 5.5 hour ride through about every imaginable terrain you could find in the forest. So my new cross bike is now officially baptised.

Here's some pics of the ride.

And sportstracker data.

The weather here isn't a factor for riding, it's just another way to dress, and maybe a little extra anti-freeze in your hubs. As one of my colleagues told me, "Finn's aren't made of sugar!"

Must Be Santa!

Mission Accomplished! We crossed the arctic circle and made a visit to the real Santa. It wasn't crowded at all and took us about 20 minutes to see Santa (you aren't allowed to take your own pictures of the inside of Santa's place). In December we were told it takes about 4 hours of waiting in line before you get to see Santa, so catching him early in the season is a wise move (even without snow). Here's a movie of some sights at Santa's Village and the Arctic Museum in Rovanieme.

Dyn-o-mite!

Isabelle got her picture and little quote in the OIS Dynamite. I haven't seen the cafeteria during lunch but Isabelle raves about it and the menu sounds like a chic 5 star restaurant. With items like:

- Reindeer Lasagna
- Porridge with Lingonberry Sauce
- Salmon Soup with Creamed Mushrooms
- Macaroni and Cheese with Minced Reindeer
- Peppered Bear Testicles with Holinday Sauce



OK, I made the last one up, but they do eat some pretty tasting sounding stuff.

And for some reason Isabelle's teaches keeps thinking she is from Dallas. Why is Dallas the only thing any body knows about Texas (yes, I know, who shot JR?). Being called a Dallas-ite is like being called a Blood when you are a Crip, or even worse, suggesting you are from Tampere instead of Oulu!