Gravel Racing in Finland- Falling Leaves Lahti

Join me and @Josh-Reid on a trip to Lahti Finland for the Nordic Gravel Series race ‘falling leaves Lahti’. 180km of champagne Finnish gravel and multiple saunas.
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
6:30 Race
13:50 Post race

Hello. Hello. Hello. Where are we? Uh we’re in Finlandi or something. Why are we in Pujalati? Um we are racing at a gravel event. We are. [Music] We’re racing a gravel event. And Josh just told me that he’s actually not raced a gravel event really this year. zero gravel events and zero fast twitch muscle fibers. So, we’ve got a gravel race on Saturday and it’s 180k of finished gravel and it’s Yeah, it’s called falling leaves latte because it’s supposed to be autumn and the leaves are supposed to be falling and it’s basically summer. I’m just here for the sauna. Josh was like, I’m just here to get in the sauna. Where’s the sauna? What time is the sauna open? We were at reception and he just goes, excuse me, sorry, when when is the sauna open until? Um, this is actually the sauna and it has a lake view. So, we’ve got our sauna stuff for after dinner because we might come in sauna already. I like Josh’s attitude towards this trip. Sauna. What have we already done? Sauna for the social ride. I think there are too many social rides going on this morning. So, not huge attendance, but we’re going to go get some baked goods and coffee. Where are we? We’re in forest in the Finland Li. We just did a social ride to this beautiful spot. Have a look. Just did a little social ride and going to have a coffee and a cinnamon roll here. This is so pretty. So Josh has gone back to the sauna. Shock horror. He’s obsessed. And I’ve sat down to have my lunch, which I’ve made from the supermarket because we were too late. Apparently in Finland you eat lunch much earlier than we do. So, we got back from a ride and everyone was like, “Oh, lunch is closed.” So, yeah, I went and this is what I’ve produced. So, I got some microwavable rice and a pound of tuna. And I also got a protein bar and a smoothie. So, I’m just trying to get as many carbs in also getting some protein. But yeah, it’s not a Michelin star meal, I have to say. So, Josh, how was your sauna 2.0? Delightful. I think you were there for a long time. Yeah, I went in and out of the water three times. So, it is the night before the race and do you know what Josh? I’m feeling calm, cool, and collected because I’ve got nothing to lose in this race. This is part of the Graf series, but because of my crash at the Rift and my crash at my Ging Grace where I definitely broke some ribs, I’m not doing enough races to be part of the series. So, actually, it doesn’t matter for me how I do tomorrow cuz it doesn’t there’s no stakes. But, at the same time, on the flip side, got everything to win because there’s a couple of really strong women racing. So I’m like, do you know what, Maddie? You try and hold on to those wheels. You try and get a good result tomorrow. And if you don’t, doesn’t matter. Come and join me. I can. Yeah. So if I have a really bad day, Josh starts 15 minutes behind me. So a bad day means I can stop at the feed zones where there are baked goods. They’ve got a bakery sponsor at the event. So I can stop, have some baked goods. And I’m going to be honest, I think my YouTube um subscriber audience would actually enjoy that more than if I continue racing. But but we can’t stop for too many cinnamon rolls. Why? because you need to be my lead out to get me back for the sauna. Oh, sorry. We need to get back for the sauna and we can’t be too cinnamon rolled out. But yeah, there’s a barbecue and sauna waiting for us and we’re going to have the best day. It’s going to be beautiful sun, beautiful gravel. It’s basically a road race, but you know, maybe I’ll enjoy road racing. Who knows? Can you find your name? So many names. What’s going on, Maddie? Um, I’m modifying my number because it doesn’t fit on my bike. And it’s not because of arrow gains cuz I’m not going to bend it cuz you’re not allowed to bend it, but it’s because of simple practicality that the number does not fit with the wires or the bars. That’s actually really good. How was dinner? Was it better than the night before? Yesterday we had some tasty balls. The tasty balls were really tasty. Tasty round balls. Sorry. They were called tasty round vegan balls and we just nicknamed them tasty balls. The tasty balls were really tasty and we ate a lot of them. The rice was very cheesy. I personally would prefer plain rice before the race than cheesy rice. The cheesy rice was good. And then what else did we have? Oh, there was a salad that I quickly moved to one side because it was pineapple, celery, and cashew nuts. And I got excited about cashew nuts without thinking about the full dish. This is really not thrilling. Are you thrilled? Not really. Because pineapple and celery do not go together or should never go together. I think I’ve done really really good job here. Yeah, you can see the numbers 207 and you can see the LA symbol through it. Can you? A sponsor’s dream. I am a sponsor’s dream. I cut off BMC and I replaced it with LA. What time is the alarm set for? 6:40. Josh said 6:50. I said 6:40. Compromise cuz breakfast is at 7:00. And I don’t know why I’m whispering, but now I’m whispering. It feels inappropriate to raise my voice. But yeah, we’ve only got 2 hours to eat breakfast and then get raising. I’ve just got big bowl of oats. What have you got? Cucumber per second free ride fuel. You’re going to have to stop on the race. We’re getting ready to rumble. We’ve got 175k on the cards. It says 180, but it’s only 175. Um, I’m pretty much ready. Are you ready? We didn’t have the most fueling breakfast. I mean, I did cuz I forced myself to eat the whole bowl. I do need to warm up my legs though. My legs feel numb again. I don’t know if it’s good numb or bad numb, but they feel numb. This is what stage racing does to you. Oh, what’s up? [Music] And go. [Applause] So, the race started with quite a long neutral section, which was 5K. And actually, the neutral was probably harder than the first 90 minutes of the race potentially. I mean, at least the first hill was. So, the first hill was like decently hard and then the car let us go. And basically, several people just didn’t want to get on the front and like would take the tiniest turns on the front or not go on the front and no one was wanting to push the pace. So yeah, here I’m on the front for a little bit here, but I should have, to be honest, I should have attacked, but I kept like overthinking it and thinking, “Oh, if I attack, I might blow up and then not be able to hold on.” But yeah, it was the slowest start to any gravel race I’ve ever done in my life. So the group was too big, and that’s why I wanted to kind of push the pace to kind of break the group up, so it was just a few of us. But yeah, it didn’t happen. girls don’t drop off the lead. Hold right. So then the lead men came through and they started 15 minutes behind us and one of the girls went and got on the back of the men. So, like G went over to her and was like, “We’re not doing that. Like, we’re not drafting men.” And I kind of shouted as well, as you can hear here. And one of the girls did actually attack on this like short climb, which did lose some people out the back of the group, but didn’t really do enough to kind of fully separate us. But yeah, there was a slight attack early on and then we settled back into the pace where no one was really doing anything and I think a lot of people then caught back. So this is like the most key moment of the race. So basically G and Anakah, who are both specialized riders, were on the front and we turn around this roundabout and then we turn onto this bike path under the road and then they literally both just sprinted and it was obviously like a planned attack and you can kind of see them in the distance here and I’m like the first rider to try and get to them. I’d like positioned myself perfectly because I was trying to keep my eye on them the whole time because I knew they was the strongest riders in the field. And yeah, I honestly could not get to them and I did like my third highest one minute power. And you can see here I’ve just been like, I actually cannot reach them. You can see them both there working together cuz they’re working together as well. So they’re saving energy. And then Lucy came through here and I was like, “Oh, maybe I can get on Lucy’s will and get to them.” And then another couple of riders came around and yeah, we just reached a point where we were like, we’re not going to get to them, but we can work together and basically start racing for third. We realized that very quickly. I was actually feeling pretty good at this point. Like I definitely burnt quite a lot of energy in that chase, but I started feeling really good and I actually turned to Lucy and I was like, “Okay, right. We’re going to attack.” And actually at one point we had a bit of a gap and I was like, “We’ve got a gap. Like work together.” But the girls did manage to catch back. But yeah, I was feeling pretty good. I was thinking, “Do you know what? tactically. I think I could maybe come third in this race or at least fourth. Um, and I was like planning to work with Lucy because I was friends with her. So, I knew that we could work well together. And she also was like definitely one of the stronger riders in the group. Heat. Heat. So there were five of us in this group working for third position while racing for third position and yeah we knew Anakin G would be pretty far ahead. They actually weren’t that big time gap in the end ahead of third position, but yeah, they were working together and we knew that they’d be working well together. So, we started racing for third and I thought we were working pretty well together. Was quite a nice group. I’ve just absolutely exploded 60ks ago. Racing the third. My legs just blew up the climb. I have done the most impressive bulk thing I’ve ever done in my life. I think my legs might fall off. Um, but I was feeling really well, but my stomach doesn’t seem to be stomaching my car now. So, we’re going to be getting any energy from it. So, I’m going to try running it to finish. This is wild. So, the last speed zone is missing or I somehow didn’t see it, which I don’t know how. And I’m crawling to finish. Oh my goodness. Get me in the sauna ASAP. [Applause] Get me to the finish. Here we go, Maddie. Nut. Go, go, go, Maddie. Hi, Josh. How did it go? It was a race of two halves. Well, two two/3s and a 1/3. First two/3s amazing. First third was really boring. Like, no one did anything. Super slow. Then second third, I was racing for third basically. And I was like, “Oh my god, I’m feeling really good. My legs were great today. Pretty confident.” Thinking, “Yeah, maybe I can come third.” Like thinking, “When am I going to attack?” And then suddenly out of nowhere I explo imploded. Like my legs just like basically fell like they fell off and I dropped off and then I was like, “Oh my god, I literally can’t push power.” Like I couldn’t push above a certain amount and I was like vomiting a bit. So, you know, not ideal. Is there anything you want to get off your chest, buddy? Well, I’ve done some thinking because I just said to my coach, Tom, the people who follow my channel will know about Tom because we just did a race together. But basically I said like, “Oh, I wasn’t digesting my car powder. It was like coming up and I was like spitting it out like basically like vomiting up.” And he was like, “What? Like the tracker two years ago?” I was like, “Do you know what? It’s the exact car powder I used for the tracker 2 years ago. And I’ve not used it for 2 years since the tracker when I was vomiting up.” But I decided my gut must be adapted now. It’s just a specific flavor. Like I I there’s must be something that I’m specifically intolerant to in a flavor cuz another flavor of exactly the same products absolutely fine. And you’d think as someone who does this for their job that I would have thought about the fact that two years ago there are videos of me can insert video um vomiting because of said um product and I decided to just give it a shot today in an 180k race and yeah so stupid. Josh, what are you doing now? What you mean what are we doing now? Okay. What are we doing? Sauna. Of course. Of course. The only thing Josh wants to do here. [Music]