Summaries Translation Tiina Alestalo
They used to ride together to races The municipality of Kälviä in Central Ostrobothnia is one of the most well-known cycling locations in Finland. High Ostrobothnian ambition combined with a good cycling environment have repeatedly raised locals into Finnish champions and even into Olympic competitors. Our editor met two ex-racers, Matti Herronen and Raimo Luoto, on their home ground, pp. 24–29. The old competitors were brimming with stories and memories of their times together at the turn of the 1950s and 60s. Herronen was drawn to racing at the age of 16 as he was always the best of the lot on their rides to movies. Movie theaters were 15 kilometers away in Kokkola, so both speed and stamina were a must. Herronen borrowed a racing bike whose owner told him to ride fast – the rear wheel was leaking. He won his first start, and soon he was winning Finnish junior championships both on track and road. Herronen persuaded Luoto and a couple of peers to join his training rides. They used to make long rides together and finish by riding around a running track for about an hour. Thus developed both their road and track skills. Coming out of age, the boys turned unbeatable on team pursuits both on the road and on velodromes, where they attended a training camp each summer. Consequently, they won team road champs three times in a row during 1958-60; the second team of their club also did well. Both Herronen and Luoto took part in Warsaw–Berlin–Prague ”Peace Race”, the greatest amateur stage riding event in those days.
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Another Finn, Paul Nyman, was the most successful, however, and the Kälviäns were less lucky in races outside Finland: Herronen was a member of the Rome Olympics team. His ride started out bluntly as he got a flat tire on the first kilometer, and the rest of the team pedaled on without waiting. In the road race, to avoid riding in the ditch he had to ride over a competitor who’d fallen off his bike, and so he was left behind the peloton 20 km before the finishing line. Yet the men’s reminiscences abound with funny stories about training and races. At one time, Herronen was training on a long ride for a stage race to be held in Sweden when a motorist ahead of him plunged straight into sea. Herronen threw his bike aside and plunged behind to help. He fetched the driver to the roadside who then asked him to save his three kids. Herronen swiftly did as told. Then he spotted further movement in the car, it’s top still floating above water level. He found the wife who’d already taken a gulp, and saved her too. In wet clothes, he rode another 50 kilometers back home. The driver, though, explained to the rescue service how he himself had bravely saved his family from the sinking car, and was awarded a medal for it. As for Herronen, he got sick with bronchitis during the race in Sweden and was forced to retire. But before entirely packing up, he took medicine for bronchitis and rode a time trial of a lifetime. Such were the cures in those days. On another occasion, tied up with work, Luoto took a train while the rest of the team went ahead by taxi to a competition held in Porvoo. Midway through the journey, he saw his
friends on the platform with their bikes, looking for the right train. The taxi had driven to a ditch and turned on its top. The men were unharmed, but their bikes needed fixing. ”Great job so far”, Herronen exclaimed. Their bikes were repaired in due time before the competion started. The guys’ coach was bicycle dealer Arvo Maunumäki, who kept them in check and counted their chances. When Finnish champs were held in Tampere, Herronen had a chance to win time trial on the road as well as on track. Midway through the road race Herronen was riding second, and Maunumäki interrupted his ride. He still got in the track race where he was a more probably champion. And win he did. The competitions brought the men a lot of friends and sympathizers around the world. After retiring, Luoto and Herronen organized big cycling events, Central Ostrobothnian races, for twenty years. This way they were able to get the best out of their ties with fellow competitors in Finland and abroad. At the age of 80 plus they are still in form and ride the bicycle, at least the exercise bicycle, while watching bike races on TV.
Matti Herronen, Jorma Ylitalo and Unto Hautalahti in the year of the olympics 1960.
