Ensi-illassa Nizza-elokuva!

Neiti Jelanskin juhannus

Neiti Jelanskin juhannus oli tänä vuonna merkittävä kahdesta syystä.

Ensinnäkin hän pyöräili ensimmäisen kerran elämässään yli sata kilometriä yhden päivän aikana. Ja toisekseen hän näki bambin. Hiuuu.

Pyörien ajokuntoon laitto on vaativaa puhaa

Pyörät, kuten myös pyöräilijät, selvisivät ongelmitta takaisin kotiin, vaikka laukut jonkin verran painoivatkin. Paluu Porvooseen tapahtui sunnuntain ja maanantain välisenä kauniina kesäyönä tilataksin ystävällisellä avustuksella. Kotikin oli entisellään.

Ja kun yöunet sitten oli nukuttu, oli aika kasata pyörät, jotta ne taas kerrran tottuisivat kylmän pohjolan oloihin. Niiden on hyvä ymmärtää, että seuraavan matkan suunta ei suinkaan ole etelä, vaan päinvastoin…

(Kuvissa Christoffer esittää oikeaa miestä. Illuusio on toteutettu kuvakäsittelyllisin keinoin.)

Last lesson

One thing we quickly realized our team desperately needs to learn is the art of traveling lightly. The amount of things we lugged back home almost broke our backs. Or the back of Christoffer, if we want to be more specific.

It was not that the others didn't plan to help. But the will to help is not always enough in itself. No matter how valiant the desire is.

This could be witnessed most clearly when examining the pained expression cast on Lina's face, when she attempted to hoist one of the bike bags.

After the humiliation of this lack luster attempt she quickly proceeded to tell us about her fragile physique, which, we are told, is something still slowly recuperating from a sickly childhood spent on the Ukrainian countryside.

Needless to say, it was then Christoffer, the teams butler and all around servant, who had to carry most of what the ladies had deemed essential to acquire from the finer boutiques on Avenue Jean Médecin.

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In the picture the bus is just a few short minutes away from mercifully taking us to l´aeroport.

One lost soul

How it was possible for Lina to get lost on a straight road with no exits to be seen is beyond the capability of man's comprehension straight up there with string theory and the finer points of the theory of relativity.

But so it was, and thus when it was time for the daily picture, she was visibly absent. But as both Kaisa and Christoffer seem happy, this might just have been for the best.

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Just kidding, ladies! Of course we would never leave our stray translator behind. So right after the picture was shot we deployed a unit to find her. And it was not long before our search and rescue party indeed found her in a shadowy nook of Eze Village muttering something incomprehensible about cycling in circles.

Someone needs to keep an eye on this girl!

Not an either or proposition

While Kaisa wanted the evening ride to head westwards to the beautiful beaches lining the riviera, Lina, Ukrainian as she is by birth, wanted to check out the Russian millionaires who had set up camp in the villas east of Nice, on the Cap Ferrat peninsula.

Possessing King Solomon -like mental powers Christoffer didn't allow pointless bickering enter the arena, as he was quick to harmonize the two cyclists' desires.

Lets do both!

And they did.

Three ladies – two ladies

Seeing Laura off signified the imminent end of our training camp.

What to some seemed like a hare-brained idea, came to be exactly what it was supposed to be: a really nice team-building exercise, where we learned about each others idiosyncrasies as well as rode together.

All of us remained on speaking terms, and no one had to resort to fisticuffs as a means to finalize their argument, which of course bodes well for the longer trip.

The end of a tradition

What quickly became a form of morning program for Laura and Christoffer was a pre-breakfast ascent to Eze. It was made in the early-ish morning hours, before the sun made it unbearable, and helped provide a healthy breakfast appetite for all attendees.

The picture shows Laura on her last descent, taking a short break to relieve her tired-from-braking-so-much thumbs at the outskirts of Corne D'Or. Taken the same day she departed for a climate more alike that what is to be expected of our upcoming journey.

Every typographer's dream

Our trip to Antibes took us to what only can be characterized as every typographer's dream. It was a sculpture from the collection of the city's Picasso museum depicting a sitting figure made entirely out of letters. Located on top of the western end of the old town's wall.

This is what's so cool about cycling around. You just happen to bump into all these cool things, completely unintentionally. They are not the purpose of the journey, nor do you set out to find them, hey just sit there, waiting for you to discover them.

A small break, and then you move on. And discover something new.

From the pictures, you can see that Christoffer, as the team's self-proclaimed design buff is especially pleased.

Next stop Hollywood

Our ambitious plans do include reports not only in the form of texts and photographs, but also moving pictures. We're still in the midst of leaning to operate the fine helmet camera we bought at the bike convention a few weeks back. But rest assured, we will master it, and you will witness the results in due time. You can tell it from the serious look of the cameraman.

Inlands

Having spent most of our time riding the coast either eastwards or westwards, we decided it was time to check out the inlands. So we made two old towns our targets of the day, first Vence, then St Paul.

Kaisa was very happy to be reunited with her old bike with the three gear front derailleur, as she climbed the steep hills like a determined turtle.

All good things…

Our newest team member, having completed her training camp, set out for new adventures boarding a train towards Istanbul. But before leaving she joined Kaisa and Laura for one more excruciating ascent to Eze-Village. And then it was off to the train station.

Have fun there, Taina. The road to Russia now knows your name!

For those of us left behind the road up to Eze still makes her daily demands for offerings of sweat and occasional tears.

Introducing... T A I N A ! ! !

So here she is – our fifth team member, all in her own words! Both Finnish and English too.

Nimi
Taina Ala-Ketola

Syntymäaika
21.8.1975

Syntymäpaikka
Oulu

Koulutus
Kasvatustieteiden maisteri

Ammatti
Luokanopettaja

Kotipaikkakunta
Helsinki

Tämänhetkinen pyörä
Ihana vanha rämä Jupiter.

Erityisominaisuutesi
Matkaseurueen sisällä kunniakkaasti kokemattomuus pyöräilijänä. Niin pyörämatkalla kuin ehkä muuallakin elämässä tainamainen hulluus, opettajan avoimuus ja tanssijan työmoraali. Uskon pärjääväni näillä ominaisuuksilla myös pyörämatkalla, vaikka kokemusta puuttuukin.

Pisin päiväetappisi pyörällä, mistä–mihin
80km 200m, Porvoo–Loviisa–Porvoo

Paras pyöräilymuistosi
Nuorena naisena Oulun kesäisessä, aurinkoisessa yöttömässä yössä, ystävien kanssa matkalla ties mistä ties minne, monien mutkien kautta, ympäri ämpäri kaupunkia, tukka takana ja elämä edessä... Näitä muistoja on paljon, ja toivottavasti niitä tulee (myös näin hieman vanhempana naisena) paljon lisää!

Pahin pyöräilymuistosi
Kerran kuusivuotiaana sain tehtäväksi käydä ostamassa kioskilta mökkireissua varten limukkaa. Minulla ei ollut kassia mukana enkä kehdannut pyytää sellaista pelottavalta kioskin tädiltä, joten yritin taiteilla pyörän ja kolmen limukkapullon kanssa kotiin. Yksi pulloista putosi keskelle autotietä juuri kun auto oli ajamassa kohti, ja sain hysteerisen itkukohtauksen, koska luulin jääväni auton alle.

Kuinka ollakaan auto kuitenkin pysähtyi, ja sieltä hyppäsi ulos kiltti nainen, joka auttoi siivoamaan lasinsirut ja antoi vielä muovipussin päälle. Itku jatkui kotiin asti; joskus lapsena sen sijaan että tulee haava, on pahempaa se, että sieluun sattuu.

Muut harrastuksesi
Tanssi, jooga, lukeminen, elokuvat.

Unelmasi
Perustaa kulttuurikoti! Se voisi toimia esimerkiksi makuuhuoneessamme Porvoossa, ja olla nimeltään Taidekammari. Taidekammariin olisivat tervetulleita esiintymään kaikki mahdolliset ja mahdottomat taiteen edustajat, siellä voisi pitää myös kursseja ja taidenäyttelyitä. Minä vetäisin Taidekammarissa pienille lapsiryhmille erilaisia taideaineita integroivia työpajoja.

Toisaalta voisin sekoittaa elämäni järjestyksen jollain toisella tapaa ja kääntää kaiken ympäri ja ylösalaisin. Ylipäätään olen onnellinen siitä, että olen saanut unohduksissa olleen unelmoimisen taidon takaisin (sen voi kadottaa, uskokaa pois). Risto Ahtia lainaten: ”Jos sinulla ei ole omaa taivasta, sinulla on toisten helvetti.”

Pelkäät eniten maailmassa
Että pojilleni tai muille läheisilleni tapahtuu jotain pahaa.

Kirja, jota tällä hetkellä luet
Ildefonso Falcones: Fatiman käsi. Kertomus 1500-luvulla tapahtuneesta islaminuskoisten maurien kapinasta kristittyjä vastaan, ja sen jälkeisestä karkoituksesta Granadasta ympäri Espanjaa. Rakastan historiallisia romaaneja, edellinen kirja oli samaisen kirjalijan Meren katedraali, lisäksi voisin mainita vielä Amin Maaloufin Leo Afrikkalaisen sekä Tom Erik Arnkilin Kyyroksen kirjan, jotka luin hiljattain.

Mitä odotat matkalta
En mitään ja kaikkea mahdollista. Seikkailua!

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Name
Taina Ala-Ketola

Date of birth
21.8.1975

Place of birth
Oulu

Education
Master of Educational Sciences

Vocation
Teacher

Place of residence
Helsinki

Current bicycle
My lovely old rusty Jupiter.

Special talents
Among the travellers I'm proud to be the one with the least cycling experience. On the trip as well as in life in general my strengths are Taina-like craziness, a teacher's open mind and a dancer's work ethics. I believe these characteristics will help me make it on the trip despite my lack of experience.

The longest distance traveled by bike in one day
80 km 200 m, Porvoo–Loviisa–Porvoo

Your best cycling memory
As a young woman in the summer of Oulu, where the sun never sets, cycling with my friends from who knows where to somewhere else, all over town, with the wind in my hair... There are so many sweet memories like this, and I hope there will be even more, even though I've grown a bit older!

Your worst cycling memory
Once, when I was six years old, I was told to go to the kiosk and get soda for a trip to the summer cottage. I hadn't brought a bag a didn't dare ask for one from the scary lady working at the kiosk. So I tried to cycle back home with three bottles, and one of them fell on the street just as a car was approaching. I started crying hysterically, fearing that I'd be hit by the car.

But suddenly it stopped and a nice lady hopped out, helped me clean the broken glass from the street and even gave me a plastic bag. I didn't stop crying before I got home, though: sometimes when you're a child you hurt your soul and it's far worse than any regular scrape.

Other hobbies
Dance, yoga, reading, movies.

Dreams
To turn our home into a cultural center! It would be based in our bedroom in Porvoo, and I would call it the Chamber of Arts. Any and every artist would be welcome to perform there, and we could also organize workshops and art exhibitions. I'd have art workshops for small groups of children, integrating different forms of art.

On the other hand, I could also turn my life upside down in some different way. I'm just happy to have regained the ability to dream (believe it or not, one can lose it). Quoting the Finnish poet Risto Ahti: ”If you don't have a heaven of your own, you'll be left with someone else's hell.”

Your worst fear
That something bad would happen to my boys or somene else I love.

Book you're currently reading
Ildefonso Falcones: The Hand of Fatima. It's the story of 16th century muslim Moors who revolt against their Christian masters and are deported from Granada all over Spain. I love historical novels, before this one I read Cathedral of the Sea by the same author. I'd also like to mention Amin Maalouf's Leo the African and Tom Erik Arnkil's The Book of Cyrus, which I've read recently.

Your expectations for the trip
I expect nothing and everything. An adventure!

Some bad news…

One of the mothers of the expedition, Elina Salonen informed us that she has met with circumstances beyond her control that in effect prohibit her from taking part in the upcoming journey.

It is with a feeling of great loss we write these words, and wish Elina all the best.

Don't be sad, Ellu, we'll send you a postcard once we're there! There will be other journeys.

…and some good news

As often times in life when one door shuts another one opens. This also happened to our five-person team temporarily reduced to four. It didn't stay that way for long, as the most unlikely candidate suddenly an completely out of the blue made her application known.

Having completed a one-week long and seriously taxing training camp in Nice, she quickly proved herself a more than worthy member of the team. It was with amazement that we witnessed her riding the long uphills like she had been wearing the polka dot jersey since kindergarten! Just as long as there was a cup of espresso awaiting up on top.

Group pictures

Being the designated photographer for the team, I am constantly met with constraints I didn't quite know existed prior to accepting this position.

You see, cycling isn't just doing long rides – it is also about looking good while doing so. Therefore many discussions during our rides have focused on which cycling shorts don't make your butt look so big, which shirt makes you resemble the Michelin man, why cycling shoes in general are so dorky and which camera angles are ab-so-lu-te-ly forbidden.

Put at least these group pictures were approved of. Sort of…

Ulkomaanmatka

Jottei elämä muuttuisi liian yksitoikkoiseksi paratiisimaisessa Provancessa, päätimme laajentaa horisonttiamme suuntaamalla Italian puolelle. Ja jos joku luulee, että täällä vain lepäillään ja nautitaan, on hän lämpimästi tervetullut kokemaan nousut Ezeen, Cap d'Ailn yli, ja Ventimigliasta Mentonin kautta takaisin.

Kilometrejä kertyi noin kahdeksankymmentä, mutta maasto oli sen verran rankkaa, ettemme usko että äiti Venäjä Karjalan puolella ainakaan kykenee vastaamme vastaavia nousuja heittämään.

Pyöräily porottavan auringon alla tuntien ajan väsytti kuitenkin joukuettamme siinä määrin, että illallinen syötiin hiljaisuuden ympäröimänä. Sen jälkeen vetäydyimme aikaiselle levolle. Noin välimerellisen standardin mukaisesti ainakin.

Terveiset suurelle Italian ystävälle Matti Rämölle – hauskaa oli, mutta me taidamme sittenkin tulevaisuudessa pysytellä pääsääntöisesti Ranskan puolella. ;-)

Look mom, no legs!

No, not Kaisa showing off her prosthetic feet, this time it's our designated dancer giving us the freshest moves on a roadbike.

She's back!

Having regained her health after a good week or so of couching her lungs out, Kaisa is back at the helm. Starting off with a nice evening ride to the picturesque Cap Ferrat, the team quickly found a working formation. (Though Laura impatiently had to do a few breakaway attempts…)

Another day in the concrete jungle

Our might not be the fastest of all cycling teams, but it sure is among the best looking ones!

Up…

While Kaisa was busy still recuperating from her cough and Lina was just recuperating the three of us took the opportunity to take our bikes up to Eze Village in the already hot morning sun. Fortunately for us, the mountains cast occasional merciful shadows on the perspiring cyclists.

Knowledge of the espresso cup awaiting at the top apparently gave extra strength to the ladies, making it hard for Christoffer to keep up with them.

…and down

The ride back home was once again more than fun – I don't think you really need to touch the pedals, should you not want to. A decent 10 kilometers went in a flash, and we can proudly claim to have broken the law: 54,3 kilometers an hour in a 50 zone.

Nice – Antibes – Cannes – Antibes –Nice

To our great and pleasant surprise the bike lane had been extended far beyond what it used to, taking us almost all the way to Antibes. And even after that the ride was more than enjoyable. Most roads had designated lanes for cyclists, and the behavior of the drivers is nothing short of excellent!

During our ride we took a wrong turn, which lead us to a most beautiful beach. What can one do in that situation, except dive in?!

Sunny skies, water of the color to die for, and a nice cooling sea breeze – what else can one ask for?

Kotiruokaa

Mikään ei piristä väsyneen pyöräilijän mieltä niin kuin kotoinen kitri pitkän päivän jälkeen.

Tämä linssi-riisipata onkin perusruokaa matkoillammme. Se on helppo valimistaa, se sisältää niin proteiineja kuin hiilihydraattejakin, ja hiukan tulisena lämmittää mukavasti kylmettynyttäkin polkijaa. Muita hyviä ominaisuuksia ovat edullisuus ja helppo kuljetettavuus. Haastamme kenet tahansa ehdottamaan parempaa matkaruokalajia.

Mitä taas tulee salaatteihin, on Nizza paratiisi maan päällä! Kuten kuvassa näkyy.

Suosittelemme lämpimästi!

Nice – Eze Village – Monaco – Nice

In the beginning some serious faces could be seen, but as the road carried us forth, the looks of the crew lightened up visibly!

Our very first real ride took us up to Eze-Village, which is a 10 kilometer ascent, followed by a 10 kilometer decent to Monaco. (Curiously, it was much faster coming down, than going up…) Once in Monaco we treated ourselves to some cold beverages in a hugely overpriced cafe by the harbor. (Now we understand why only millonaires live there…)

After thus feeling properly refreshed, we headed homeward, this time by the seaside route.