By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Marco Milesi
We left the action with Florian (aero man) leading, followed by Jens (the veteran) and Ralph (the record man). During the night the only one to keep on pedaling is the first, going all out till 01:30 in the morning, when he stops for a quick nap. Ralph is the first to get up, and by 04:00am he almost catches Jens. But the veteran has a sixth sense and starts cycling a couple of km before he gets caught by the record man.
Meanwhile, in the background things start to take a defined turn: Yves, Leon, Stefan and Udo all travel at roughly the same speed, rapidly putting some km of distance between them and the big group behind. But they still have a long way to go to catch the leading group.
Time flies, and in the afternoon, also thanks to the tailwind and the generally good weather, the front group is way beyond the middle point of Finland, flying towards checkpoint 1: Helsinki.
At around 3:30pm Leon Koning (5th position) is involved in an accident and is therefore transported by helicopter to Oulo’s hospital, where he is forced to scratch, postponing what would have been and will be an amazing performance.
As time goes on, at 7:30pm the situation is almost the same as before, except for Jens catching up with Florian: now between the 2 riders there are only 30km. Ralph, instead, falls a bit behind.
At midnight Florian has re-gained all the advantage by pushing through when Jens stopped for sleeping. Now there is only one question that needs and answer: will Florian beat the record set by Stefen Streich to get to Helsinki in 3 days and 20h?
Stay with me to find out, the answer will surprise you.
