Talvipäivänseisaus ajetaan 20.-21.12.2025. Maalipaikat Kuopio, Oulu, Tallinna, Tampere ja Turku. Katso lisätiedot:

I haven’t usually written a separate story about Ruskas as I mostly share them in social media as they happen and publish a chronological photo album that has the key points of the story. Here are links to this year’s photos of the ride and photos of other participants.

For those who accidentally end up to this post, here is some key information. Ruska is a approximately 2000 km bicycle ride across Finland in maximum of 8 days in September through the autumn colors. Route is different every year. I’m the organizer and I’ve also made the event’s rules. Rules mostly follow those in other solo(/pair) self supported bicycle events and brevets. There are however some limitations further you progress. Also after 10 finishes you may need to find other hobbies as you may only finish the event 10 times. Though I expect such riders will find their way to finish on their own and maybe help scouting next year’s controls on the way and so on. As this was the 9th event none’s got that far yet.

Restrictions are that for 7th and 8th finish you may not use gps or any other locating tools. For 9th finish also maps and any other notes about route are forbidden except within 5 kms from the event’s mandatory points such as controls or parkours. For 10th you will also at start and at each of the controls get a via point you need to use before next control and you won’t know it until you’ve reached the previous control.

There are now 2 participants with 6 finishes, one with 7 and me with 9. So the story you are about to read is about how the ride went and especially notes about practicalities for future discussion.

You can find Ruska 2025 route here and my route here.

Lue loppuun →

Purpose of the travel was once again to travel to the Transcontinental race and back in the Green leaderboard(/#lowcarbontcr) category without flying. I’ve written about similar tours from 2015, 2018 and 2023.

There is a separate section for planning and how it went in practice for both parts.

  Lue loppuun →

The quiz is over. Ruska 2026 controls can be found on the map.

Ruska 2026 route will be announced once someone correctly answers the quiz. The hints obviously have plenty of bias towards native Finns, but can with some extra effort be solved by others too.

The #ruska2026quiz hints are published here daily, or occasionally more often. The final answer still has to be sent in Twitter using #ruska2026quiz, but feel free to join the discussion under the # on other platforms too. Once someone Tweets the answer with correct start, finish and 3 controls using #ruska2026quiz the route will be announced.

• Controls are controls because of human touch
• The start is not there anymore
• For a number of reasons you shouldn’t plan your route through the 1st control
• If Empedocles saw you at the 2nd control he would say you are not on fire
• Arriving to the 3rd control you have a feeling you’ve been here before. Which is true. From there some will also see something they’ve seen before. Which is most likely false.
• Ruska is not the first thing to finish at the finish
• One thing is certain, the start wasn’t found from where it was left
• It is easy to navigate to the 1st control. Many means of transportation are possible. If you arrive by horse you are on a wrong era and by plane I recommend using extra caution.
• The 2nd control is the highest point of interest in meters above sea level
• As you approach the 3rd control on a road you will see for the region a very common natural feature, but for a brief moment you will see two of them, which is very uncommon
• The finish may not be as comfy as even some nearby options, but still a lot better than Ruska 2020 finish
• The road at the start shares its name with why the start is from there
• The 1st control has the same name as two Ruska finishers, but how they are depicted is not so admiring
• The 2nd control is the eastmost of the points of interest and has a mandatory hike section
• As you approach the 3rd control you’ll maybe remember Ruska 2025 and sigh that ”those were the days”
• Bonus hint: From start there are 4 alternatives to divert routes. Two are books, one is a bridge and the last one is a reference to a Mika Kaurismäki’s movie that you’ll probably agree with. It somehow also resembles the 2nd control.
• If you look around at the finish, most you see in the horizon is across the border of the country where you are standing
• The start was sold for five marks
• The 1st and 3rd control will remain a mystery
• While hiding in plain sight, the 2nd control was only found about 50 years ago
• From 2nd to 3rd control is a longer distance than between any previous control points in Ruska

Time for another Transcontinental race kit list. In the rare case you’ve missed the earlier they can be found at 2024, 2023, 2022, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014. Or you can just skip to this year’s album.

Repeating myself here, but bike is the Orbea Avant with 50/34 cranks and a 13-29 cassette. SON hub dynamo in the front. Back to Open pro rims as I had trouble inflating the Schwalbe 365 tubes enough for the tires to rise up on RR 411s last year.

Carradice saddlebag, Sea-to-summit pouch, 3 Apidura food pouches, Missgrape frame bag and Topeak&Miss grape top tube bags. Lue loppuun →

Tilaa Randonneurs Finland -ajovaatteita 16.3. kello 24 asti. Tarjolla on tällä kertaa sini-valkoinen design. Tilaukset tehdään Kalaksen verkkokaupassa ja ne toimitetaan kotiin toukokuun aikana.

Order Randonneurs Finland cycling gear until midnight 16.3. This time the blue-white design is available. Orders are made in the Kalas webshop and they will be delivered during May.

Verkkokauppaan / To the webshop

Kysymyksiä / Questions randonneursfi@gmail.com