My Year : Laura Vainionpää

2021 was a complex year. It was hard to know what to expect after a very unusual 2020. Little was known about how the corona pandemic would have an impact on this season. Travel restrictions and infection risks didn't make things easier but some riders still managed to perform very well under these uncertain conditions. One of these riders was Laura Vainionpää. She celebrated both individual succes and team triumphs. The 27 years old from S-Bikes Doltcini won a race herself in a strong field and supported her talented team mate Arianna Pruisscher to take top 10 results in international UCI races. How did the she experienced this season herself? She tells you about it here!

 

First season when I couldn’t go for a training camp (because of Covid-19 and work) and I could feel and see it on our first races which were GP Oetingen and Ronde Van Moeskroen. The season kept going and I was getting stronger and the results getting better. My team mate Arianna was riding very strong the whole season and as I wasn’t feeling the greatest I wanted to help her as much as I can. She delivered amazing top 10 results from the UCI races! 

In the midsummer we have our national championships and I was super sad to miss them for another year, the travel rules were strict and I didn’t want to risk anything, hopefully I will get to race next year! Summer was better time for me, I had decided to sprint in every race I do, as the last couple seasons I’ve been a bit scared but I am a good sprinter so I wanted to give it a try. I think there’s no race I’m out of top 20 so I improved a lot. The whole season I was feeling good but not great, I got some amazing results like the win in Erwetegem, one of the hardest kermesse parcours. One of the hardest things is not seeing my family a lot but I was lucky to have my mum here for a week during the summer! The whole year I was working hard to be racing at my “home” world championships in Leuven and unfortunately Finland didn’t select me to race, they didn’t select anyone. 

This was also  the first year I actually took 4 weeks off after season. don’t get me wrong, I always have 4 weeks off after the season but I just keep riding a lot. Because I love it. This year I started playing ice hockey again and did so much other things instead of riding. I only rode if I felt like it. And it did me great! After 4 weeks I was more motivated than ever to ride my bike and I was lucky enough to get to travel to Finland after almost 2 years and see almost everyone of my family!

2021 was really hard year at work with more and more parcels and there’s times I am really tired but I am very motivated for what is coming next. In fact if you look at the results it was a very good season with strong results while I have the feeling I wasn’t feeling the best I’ve felt! So the best is yet to come ;) We had great calendar with S-Bikes Doltcini and we are going to have it also for 2022! Here’s to the 4th season with my second family!