Finnish Gravel Nationals 2024

Full first lap (two laps in total = ~156km) of Gravel Nationals at Koli national park area.
Start was with elite and age groups. I was competing in age group 35-39.

My goal was not to toast myself in the climb at the beginning and keep up the good pace until the end. Elite + some age groupers formed a breakaway in the first climb. I think the peloton broke into 3 groups, I found myself in the middle group.

During the race we picked up some dropped riders from the breakaway. I was a bit worried that the last group will catch us, since our pace wasn't very fast (the work done in the front started to decline at ~70km). The last group didn't catch us and our group stick until the final ~10km of the race and started breaking up for the final climb.

I finished 7th in my category. Which was not bad, but could've been better. Had only one technical issue on second lap (chain drop), but managed to catch the group again.