Saimaa Cycle Tour

For the last couple of winters I have been racing virtually on Zwift with a Finnish team (Ride Club Finland) competing in the Zwift Racing League. As a Finn this has allowed me to stay connected to my roots and to practice my Finnish whilst keeping fit in the winter. Over the 2 winters I’ve raced I’ve become familiar with quite a few regular riders from all parts of Finland. So when the team mentioned they had a team entry slot for the Saimaa Cycle Tour in 2026, people I knew had also entered and I was looking for an excuse to go back to Finland I decided to enter the event.

Saimaa is the biggest lake in Finland, known for the endangered Saimaa Ringed Seals, and is an area I have always wanted to visit. I entered the 300km overnight event which would be my longest bike ride ever and first time riding through the night.

On the evening we had 60 people at the start line for a 20:04 start, in total the whole event had over 5800! We divided into roughly three groups based on target speeds, I was in the fastest group aiming for 37km/h average. Very quickly we formed into a two abreast rotating formation with everyone going to the front for about 30-90 seconds. We went off very fast – before I knew it we had completed 40km in an hour – this was going to be tough.

There were a total of 8 snack and service points along the long route – though we had a clear 3 stop strategy. 5, 20 and 5 minutes were the timings for the stops – with the middle one consisting of hot food (I think this was about 1am). The fantastic blueberry soup is worthy of a special mention.

By the time the sun set at 11:30 our group of 20 dwindled down to 15, the number of riders able to rotate at the front was reducing and I was definitely questioning my life choices and whether I could even hang on to the group to the finish. Surprisingly riding through the dusk wasn’t as tough as I thought it might be, the pace eased off ever so slightly and each hill oddly felt like a mini recovery period. By the time the sun rose at 3:30 am we only had about 75km to the finish line. It was starting to feel possible.

In the end we finished around 5:30am with an official time of just under 8 and a half hours – and I had a moving time of 7:55:16 (fun fact – I was 49 seconds quicker than ex-pro Si Richardson of GCN fame who rode the event in 2025). Had a few group pictures, something to eat and then back to the campervan to sleep. What an amazing and unique event!

For more info on this event and also a gravel tour, see the Saimaa Cycle Tour website.