# Finland: annual Tour de Tampere group ride



## perttime (Aug 26, 2005)

XIII Tour de Tampere, *Saturday 30 August 2008* 
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Biking Club "Kaupin Kanuunat", in *Tampere Finland*, is arranging the 13th annual Tour de Tampere mountain biking event. It is a ride, not a race.

--- there's no _real_ mountains there, but the forest trails contain all sorts of smaller ups and downs, so things are not exactly flat either ---

Start and Finish will be at the Ratina sports stadium almost in city center.

Participants will be divided into 10 different groups with different levels of distance, speed and difficulty. Most will start at 10:00 AM local time, for about 8 hours "out there". Shorter 5 hour rides begin at 13:00.

The groups range from "1A" (XC/endurance racers), "1B" (AM/Free) and "2A" (trail - fast and technical) to "3B" (pretty relaxed) and "½C" (easy ride for newbies).

Last year there were about 150 participants.

Some pics from a couple of years back (the routes are on the other side of town this year):
http://www.kaupinkanuunat.net/tdt/tdtXI/gallery.html

If you happen to be in the area....


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## perttime (Aug 26, 2005)

The weather is looking good: a little rain today and then dry, not too hot.
http://www.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/wea...ion=02763&param=T&****a=Tampere&Go.x=8&Go.y=9

Uhh, more than a little rain, actually. I suspect there'll be a few slippery spots left on saturday...


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## Evil Sylvain (Oct 5, 2005)

So how was it?


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## perttime (Aug 26, 2005)

It was good enough to be called successful 
I had a good time.

There were about 200 of us riding, and 20 in my group, and I've only heard positive comments so far.

The rains of the recent weeks, and last thusday, had turned a couple of pieces of trail into subarctic jungle streams and ponds. It was an "exotic" experience to me, but most of them were ridable when you just went in and kept pedaling.

A couple of guys went to take some photos but they are from easily accessible places and things rarely manage to look like much in photos...


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## Evil Sylvain (Oct 5, 2005)

Nice rocky sections!


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## perttime (Aug 26, 2005)

Nah, the first one only has a couple of spots earlier on where you need to pay attention.

The second one... that is rocky enough for me, and there's a pretty long piece of trail with rocks. Going the way those guys in the pic are going, I usually clear it. In the other direction, I usually stall when the trail points slightly up for 50 meters, or so.


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