Summer 2005 Finnish Kicksled and Scooter Association,
Eurocup
Scooter Season Finished 30.9.2005Hannu Vierikko won the men's Eurocup point ranking in a sovereign manner. Victories in other classes were taken by Dutch and Czech kickers. Read more at http://www.iksaworld.com/.
Ville's
Autumn Kicks 24.9.2005 Lapinjärvi
The autumn kicks of Ville Vickholm have become a very special closing ceremony of the domestic summer season. The sprint races were held at the Marieberg sports field, not far from the road where Ville's life got a tragic end almost two years ago. The peaceful churchyard with his grave is located in the vicinity, too.
Ville's son Hjalmar, who is one year and three months old, was the most cheered participant of the day. With only minor assistance from his mother Heidi, Hjalmar convinced the crowd that this was a perfect occasion to circumvene the track. It has been decided that the sprint distance shall get every year one kilometer longer as Hjalmar gets older, whereas the road race shall always remain as long as when Ville invited all kickers to celebrate his 32nd birthday with the equivalent number of kilometers.
The road race was held on the traditional route on the Lovisa road. Due to some traffic rearrangements, though, the lap was shortened so that the challenging Kuckubacken hill was ascended four times instead of only three. Jaana Nykänen won the ladies' class with a very decent finish time but without much opposition. In the men's race the top trio Jan Elmgren, Alpo Kuusisto and Erwin Borremans started out fast. Only Jan and Alpo survived to the home stretch, where Jan was clearly stronger by a radius of the wheel. Erwin, the winner of the senior sprint, had to give up the fight quite early. Thus the author was offered the rare honour to kick most of the race together with an European Champion. When the finish line appeared into sight, however, Erwin gave a reminder of the level difference by accelerating downhill with few quick kicks, an ability that distinguishes a gifted kicker from an ordinary slow Joe Blow.
After the races we enjoyed the hospitality of Lapinjärven Lukko by having sauna and supper at their club cottage. There was also the autumn meeting of Finnish Kicksled and Scooter Association, where inducing growth in participation numbers was considered a major challenge.
Results
1 km sprint
Men 1. Erwin Borremans 2.13, 2. Jan Elmgren 2.14, 3. Alpo Kuusisto 2.16
G10 1. Julia Haven 3.28, 2. Petra Nurmi 3.30, 3. Hanna Jordas 4.32
B10 1. Sebastian Jordas 3.47
B12 1. Roope Nurmi 3.00
G16 1. Laura Nurmi 2.46
Under 4 years 400m
1. Ville-Hjalmar Vickholm (with small assistance) 4.20, 2. Jonathan Hansson 9.53 (kicked all by himself)
32 km road race
Ladies 1. Jaana Nykänen 1.29.10
Men 1. Jan Elmgren 1.10.56, 2. Alpo Kuusisto 1.10.57, 3. Erwin Borremans 1.20.22, 4. Esa Mononen 1.20.26
Esa Mononen
Eurocup
Germany 20.-21.8.2005 Sankt WendelRead the story in Kickbike News.
Sovereign
Winners in Eurocup Marathon 7.8.2005 Espoo
After a fair Saturday of Kickbike XC activities the Sunday morning dawned dull and rainy. A fresh southernly wind scattered the cloud cover as the time for marathon start approached. The road surface, however, remained wet in the beginning and at the first turning point the current leader Anssi Lehtinen tried out the motorspeedway curve technique "an ear on the ground". Hannu Vierikko seemed to have learned something from the Friday's sprint finish, as he decided to kick away from the others already before the halfway mark. His winning time was as fast as the ones from the good old days, so Erwin Borremans found himself beaten by almost five minutes. Also Alpo Kuusisto, who is still short of form due to his knee injury, and Anssi Lehtinen finished in less than one and a half hour, which feat is sometimes considered a sign of a tough kicker.
On the Solvalla road there was a plenty of motor vehicles, which required caution of all kickers especially at the turning points. Maybe being used to the famous chaotic traffic of her home country gave Miriam Cerutti the guts to get rid of her opponents early in the race. Thus Miriam became the double champion of the Eurocup weekend. Many a domestic favourite didn't start at all to the ladies' half marathon race, so time differences behind the winner grew quite big. Marjo Reijonen and Karoliina Luoto took the other podium places. Some of the participants in the half marathon kicked a little extra by mistake after their race was actually already over, but as there were no tight sprint finishes, it could be logged as brisk cooldown.
One ought to take note of the full marathon performance of 12-year-old Henri Lehtinen as an example that hopefully encourages more two-hour marathoners to enter kick races. Another example for us aboriginal Finns was the dedication of Erwin, who was the soul of the weekend kicking in the leading pack on the race track as well as in the race organisation.
Ladies 21,1 km
1. Miriam Cerutti Italy 56.25 2. Marjo Reijonen Finland 1.03.17 3. Karoliina Luoto Finland 1.07.53 4. Susanna Nyman Finland 1.12.52 5. Elisa Viglio Italy 1.13.29 Men 42,2 km (total 15 finishers)
1. Hannu Vierikko Finland 1.23.26 2. Erwin Borremans Belgium 1.28.15 3. Alpo Kuusisto Finland 1.29.19 4. Anssi Lehtinen Finland 1.29.53 5. Lars Kessler Germany 1.35.34 Esa Mononen
Eurocup
Sprints to Italy and Belgium 5.8.2005 HelsinkiAt the indoor track there were altogether about thirty participants representing five different countries. The two-(wo)man 15 minute relay seemed more like a fun event from the spectators' viewpoint, although it restored the old kick order with Hannu Vierikko/Alpo Kuusisto covering the longest distance. In the kids' race Akseli Escartin proved to be soon ready to join the seniors, as his time would have placed eight in the men's time trial. The other juniors were not too far behind, so there is indeed hope that Finland's scootering might regain its positions at the highest place on the podium in the Eurocup races of the future.
Miriam Cerutti and Erwin Borremans snatched the victories of the one kilometer sprint finals just ahead of the home favourites Anne-Maria and Hannu Vierikko, respectively. In both finals the top two finishers were clear already at the halfway mark. In the ladies' class Anne-Maria got a small gap to Miriam in the beginning. However, with the loudest portion of the cheering crowd being the team Italy, Miriam surprised with a very strong finish and overtook Anne-Maria on the home stretch. In the men's final Hannu tried to follow his familiar tactique, hanging behind the leader and finishing with a superior kick, but this time Erwin was too strong for the old champion.
Ladies' final (no qualifying heats)
1. Miriam Cerutti Italy 2.27.90 2. Anne-Maria Vierikko Finland 2.28.28 3. Marjo Reijonen Finland 2.33.59 4. Karoliina Vilander Finland 2.34.04 5. Elise Viglio Italy 2.41.03 6. Marlies van Dijk Holland 3.15.04 Men's final (total 17 in time trials)
1. Erwin Borremans Belgium 1.58.43 2. Hannu Vierikko Finland 1.58.96 3. Stefano Beltrando Italy 2.08.20 4. Federico Torti Italy 2.20.00 Esa Mononen
First US 1
km Official Time 1.8.2005
We keep getting more and more kick news from the USA. Jim Delzer completed his transcontinental record attempt on July 21. Only two days later Gary Schmitt (photo) demonstrated a strong performance on a somewhat shorter distance. Read the press release.
Initial planning steps are being taken to formalize a series of US events for both scooter and kicksled competition. These are being coordinated through the new National Scooter and Kicksled Organization http://www.nsko.org/.
Savonia
Summertime Kicks 19.7.2005
In the province of Savonia in Eastern Finland there are several nice kick events. One of them, the "Tour of Hell" on the first Saturday of July in Savonranta, is actually a small local non-competitive cycling event not yet discovered by the bulk of the kicking crowd. For strangers, the name might sound dreadful, but actually the 72 km completely paved route is quite pleasant. Yet perhaps the end part with some more sharply undulating terrain might remind the not-so-well prepared participants of the lands down below.
The largest and the most traditional kick event is the Puruvesi Round that was organised in mid-July already for the sixth time. The organisers (Club Kickbike Savonlinna) always manage to do a fantastic job. The total 150 km is covered in two days, with an overnight stay at a pictoresque holiday resort on the Carelian side of lake Puruvesi. As the local newspaper put it, this event is fitness on full pension. The tours in Savonia are indeed worth a kick !
Esa Mononen
European
Scooter Champs in ITALY!
Read the story from the news of Kickbike Worldwide ltd or later from the pages of the IKSA.
Jyväs Kicks
on test driving track12.6.2005 Jyväskylä, Finland
Richard "Rick" van Camp is always really hard "stuff" in the JyväsKicks. Last summer Rick had to share out the victory of the short distance with Jan Elmgren, but this year Rick was overwhelming when hard kickers, like the Eurocup leader Hannu Vierikko, from the Southern Finland were not present.
In the 10k race Rick kick away after the first lap. The second hardest kicker was Timo Rinkinen who took clearly the second place on the two rounds race and the third place on the 10k. Matti Pesälä kicked a chock between the KENSU team. Pesälä surprised Antti Lehtinen in the first start and was near to surprise in the second too. However, Lehtinen and Rinkinen were able to roll a break in the last gentle downhill, so Pesälä didn't catch them on the final straight.
This year the Jyväs Kicks were arranged on the test driving track in Lievestuore. The Jyväs Kicks have already been arranged in several years but this was the second time on the test driving track. This time the distances differed from the last year races. The short race was two rounds (early a round) and the longer one was exactly 10 kilometers (the verifying measurement is missing).
Antti Lehtinen (story) & Keijo Ilmavirta (photos)
Results
2,24 km: 1. Richard van Camp KENSU 4,28 2. Timo Rinkinen KENSU 4,43 3. Matti Pesälä Harjavalta 4,52 4. Antti Lehtinen KENSU 4,56 5. Arto Hakasalo KENSU 5,23
Miehet 10 km: 1. Richard van Camp KENSU 20,48 2. Antti Lehtinen KENSU 22,17 3. Timo Rinkinen KENSU 22,18 4. Matti Pesälä Harjavalta 22,19 5. Arto Hakasalo KENSU 23,30
Fitness class 1,12 km: 1. Keijo Ilmavirta 2,45 2. Risto Hänninen 2,54 3. Tuomas Hänninen 3,10 4. Pirjo Karetie 3,13 5. Paavo Pohjola 3,18 6. Tapani Riikonen 3,20 7. Leila Lehtoranta 3,28 8. Mirja Teittinen 4,07
Scooter
Eurocup continnued
Read the story from pages of Kickbike Worldwide Ltd and the results from pages of www.iksaworld.com.
Scooter
Eurocup 2005 started
Read the story written by Hannu Vierikko from the news pages of Kickbike Worldwide Ltd.
