Tuomas Lampainen
PBK Team Finland takes part in Triathlon…
When you’re feeling like you are in quite good shape it’s time for some racing. That’s why Team Finland takes part in some triathlon competition because there hasn’t been so much going on in cycling in the last month. I got the idea to compete from my triathlete brother at the last minute.
The first competition was a short triathlon in a place called Ellivuori which included 500m swimming, 20k cycling and 5k running. Swimming worried me the most. Although I am an old swimmer, I haven’t trained in three years and this summer there was only two wetsuit training sessions before that race. Anyway, swimming was the second best thing that day, the best thing was the amazing run. The competition began with a good swim, I was second right behind the best swimmer. We almost got a runaway from the chasing groups but one guy from the second group caught us in the last third of the cycling. The rest of the cycling was excellent “team work” and the others didn’t have a chance to catch us. Even though the cycling stage was the worse thing, luckily my legs felt great during the run and I got enough lead from the other two guys in the uphill before the downhill section. The race was tough but fair.
This fantastic race gave me lots of confidence and a couple days later I signed in in a half Ironman competition in town called Nokia. The Finish Ironman Championship was given away in same race so lots of people and many good athletics would be on the start line. In our group the amount of triathletes was more than double the Ironman start so that made me nervous when reading the startlist. Seven days between these two races went fast cycling with my team members and swimming and running with my brother. My race bike needed fixing for the 90 km time trial, so Ville borrowed his clip on base bar and my Cervelo S1 has the option to shape the seatpost to a more suitable position for time trial. 1.9 km swim was like a thousand times bigger monkey on my back compared to the last weekend’s race and I was afraid of the cold weather which was promised in weather reports only a couple days before the start date. Cold weather makes my legs powerless, so 90 km cycling would in that case be very difficult. Even though I had worries about my swimming, it felt very good after 500m and got better and better the further the swimming went. I got to the transition zone in second place.
Tuomas Lampainen Nokia Triathlon Win
When I got near my bike I saw the leading guy and I knew that the swim was excellent. The weather wasn’t warm enough for my legs yet and I had to remind myself many times that 90 km was a long distance so I tried to cool my head down all the way to the first turning in 22,5 km. I hoped that my plan was right, ’cause the leader was taking more advance a few kilometers after the turning point. Luckily my legs started to warm up half way through the cycling I had my first good look at the leader’s back. Then I knew that he would stay on my back for a while. I drove second the second lap more than five minutes faster then the former leader and all other competitors were also slower than me.
High 5 gels gave me enough energy to survive the running. Therefore it was quite easy to smile and give interviews on the finish line although the running stage wasn’t easy, it really gave me a hard time. I want to thank the whole team and specially Ville and Matti for mechanic support. I had fantastic supporters and a mechanic during the race. My all time best cycling performance gave me the opportunity to win. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to compete against my twin brother the next year.
