Season 2015 through my eyes

I´m finally mentally ready to talk about my 2015 season. I had to take a little distance to cycling to get some perspective to what happened this year.
At first i have to say that on paper this season was pretty exceptional. In Finnish national DH series no one beat me twice, my worst finish was 2nd and i won the last race and series overall.
I did all that with first generation Pole DH prototype with 176mm travel.

Still i was pretty mad to myself after this season. Why? I kind of felt like i did not deserved it, partly because there was so many mistakes and so many missed opportunities. Partly because i felt i did not put enough hours in training and did not race enough international races to progress.
Second reason might be consequence of founding a company which means i have had to work harder to make it work.

Now that i recognize my weaknesses i think i will be able to step up my game a lot for 2016. Meanwhile, i am really trying to celebrate this year´s overall victory as much i can.

Here is Finnish national series results: http://mountainbike.fi/vauhtijaosto/kilpailutulokset/419-2015-06-08-19-09-37

Photo is by Mikko Rantanen

Finnish nationals #2 Jyväskylä

This happened actually few weeks ago. Race was held at Jyväskylä on proper highspeed track. I actually had few momenths on my race run and thought it wasn't nearly good enough so there is a lot more to give. First was when i kind a overshoot one big pile of sand front heavy and i lost my left pedal for a few secs. The same thing happenet right before the last turn and because of that i almost missed one small double before that turn. I still somehow managed to finish 0,8 sec behind the winner.

Next it's time to race finnish champs at Tahko on 27.6.

Pole DH prototype 2015

Here is sneak peek of my 2015 bike. It´s prototype called Vaara from Pole Bicycles. The name means hill or danger in Finnish so suits well.

They send it straight to the hotel i was staying in Winterberg for iXS German Cup #1 and i rode it there for the first time. Didn´t get too much time to test it but it felt pretty great straight away. I wasn´t too far off to get a good finish but maybe because i had so little time on the bike i only finished 44th. i was 10 secs behind the winner.

Next i will be racing Finnish national series round #2 in Jyväskylä on upcoming weekend.

Click to enlarge

National enduro series #1

I decided to race the first round of finnish national race at Messilä when Pole bicycles offered me a proper enduro bike for that race. Turned out it was really good way to start up my season and get some time on the bike. Race included nine about 2-4 minutes long stages with over 30 kilometres of pedalling between them- no lifts whatsoever. I haven't been doing enough of crosscountry cycling and it became obvious that i would have some problems with my legs during 4+ hours on the bike. I had one day to get used to Pole's Rinne bike before the race but it wasn't a big issue as the bike was really easy to ride straight away.  Had a good time and with one awkward crash i still managed to get 7th place. I was a bit dissapointed ofcourse but it wasn't too bad at the race with about 250 rider.

Results:
http://www.mtb-enduro.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Santa-Cruz-Enduro-Series-2015-Messil%C3%A4-Lopputulokset-2.htm

Also check out my profile on Pole's page!
https://www.pole.fi/#antti-lampen

Next i am travelling to Germany on 21.5. for German Downhill Cup #1 at winterberg. It's part of Dirt Masters festival, the largest bicycle festival in europe.

Training camp in Malaga, Spain

This was my 8th time in Spain with Switchbacks. Cool trip as always and was happy that as many as 8 finns was there with me this year. My race bike from Pole didn't arrive yet so had to go there with Pole steel proto that Leo generously gave me for that trip. Worked so well thought! Had more fun than i thought i would and more likely progressed better on a bike with 170mm of travel.

Cooperation with finnish brand Pole on 2015

Happy to announce cooperation with finnish brand Pole.
I hope we will be able to prove Pole bikes competitive and maybe change the game a bit. I have always been curious about new concepts and creative ideas.
Man behind Pole, Leo Kokkonen, is aiming for effective design and effective design only. No excuses. That suits my mentality aswell and i am really looking forward for the season.

Thanks for 2014!

Here is photo i am giving out to my sponsor to thank them for the season 2014. Thought i might post it here aswell. Now it's just about training for 2015. I am doing a lot of long slow exercises, like 4 hours walk last sunday. Lets see what i can do to get faster before first races...

New crosscountrybike

Just got new trainingbike! Spent 4,5 hours on a bike today. 3 hours in the morning and 1,5 hours in the evening, both workouts were pretty slow and easy.
So much fun!

Summary of 2nd part of the season

Sorry for not posting anything about the end of the season i just have been a bit dissapointed how things worked out.

I had a flat front tire at Finnish nationals at Rovaniemi. I had so good speed there and i was sure i could do well. Actually, i had flat front tire also on my seeding run. I thought that was my share of bad luck for that day. That was it for the series overall. I was standing second before that. Season final was just week after Rovaniemi but i was ill and i choose not to ride there to be fit for international races, such like world champs.

Although i won the longest track of the Finnish season at Tahko and was the only not injured rider to even race outside Finland, finnish cycling federation decided to pay overal winner of finnish national series to race world champs. Actually, i even managed to get decent 12th place in C2 category race early on the season.
Pissed me off so bad that i haven't been touching my bike since.

Last year i was nominated for World Champs at South Africa but finnish federation forgot to sign me up for the race.

Videos

Not sure if i have posted these already but no reason not to post them again to be sure,

Here is one oldish video from Sappee Bikepark that Riku Länsiö made:
 http://vimeo.com/100490690

Then one from the same film maker but instead of Finland, this one is filmed in Schladming, Austria:
http://vimeo.com/98654427