Since finishing 2nd overall in 2007, Matti’s World Cup seasons have been hampered by injury - he is now back to full health and in the middle of a tough winter training schedule preparing for the 2010 season.

The last 2 years have been hard on Matti - firstly he broke his back at the end of 2007, then breaking both his wrists in Canberra for the Australian round of the 2008 World Cup series. Matti then had another bad crash last year at the Bromont World Cup round breaking more bones and putting him out for the remainder of the season.

Matti is a great addition to the team roster… Team Chain Reaction Cyles/Intense fully believe in his ability and feel with the support of our team and his return to Intense frames will help him get back on the podium at World Cup level and allow him to achieve his goals for 2010.

On joining the team Matti Lehikoinen says:
“I am really exited to ride for Team Chain Reaction Cycles.com/Intense in 2010. I am looking forward to getting back on Intense and working together with CRC crew. I think with a good team behind me we are able to get me back on the podium. All my injuries are in the past now, I am healthy and looking forward to the up coming season. The past two years have been pretty hard for me due to my injuries but now I am really motivated and hungry for some good results in 2010!”

Team Riders for 2010
Chris Kovarik
Julien Camellini
Matti Lehikoinen
Claire Buchar
Matt Simmonds
Ruaridh Cunningham

A full list of our 2010 sponsors to follow shortly……

It´s now been almost a week since I crashed in Bromont and my recovery has progressed quite a bit. I got back home on Monday night and visited a doctor on Tuesday first thing in the morning. They told me that everything looks really good and I should be recovering pretty quick. At the moment I don´t really have anymore pain and I am actually able to move my shoulder a little bit to keep it mobile. I need to be careful not to put much load on it that it will heal back to normal. I should be able to start easy fysio next week witch is good thing.
Doctor also told me that my pelvis is nothing to worry about, it will heal just fine with out any treatment.  It´s just massively bruised but I am able to walk normal without pain.

After the race in MTSA we did some testing for FOX racing shox on Monday and Tuesday before Bromont. It was really good for me because after those two days of fine tuning my suspension I felt really confident on my bike. I was really looking forward to race in Bromont and get good result.
Track was pretty much the same as before they made some minor changes to it but nothing too big.
In practice I was riding good and felt really confident on my bike. I qualified in 10th place witch I was pretty happy about because I have struggled all year to put a good run together in the semifinal. I knew that I could do better in the finals.
My final run started of pretty good didn´t make any big mistakes and was feeling smooth. At the very end of the rock garden just before the “highway” bottom bit I missed my line and went little too far to the left over the berm. I was trying to get back to my line but I hit big hole with my front wheel just before this drop off and flew over the bars down the drop off and landed on my hip and shoulder. That was the end of my race. I got off the track and walked to the paramedics and they took me down on a quad. I knew that I was hurt because my shoulder was in pain and my hip was really sore too. Our team manager took me to the hospital for x-rays and they find out that I have fractured my collarbone and I also have fracture in my pelvis.
It´s not too bad my collarbone is perfectly in place and it´s attach and my pelvis has a small crack on it. So it will all heal by it self and I hope it woun´t take too long.
At the moment I am not sure if I can race worlds or the finals in schladming.  It´s still too early to say but I am hoping that I will be fine by then.
I am flying back home tonight from montreal and go see a specialist and see what they say.
Stay tuned for more injury updates.

It´s been a while since the last update. I spend 3 weeks at home after Maribor. It was good to have little break in the middle of the season before heading to Canada.
Now I am in Mount Saint Anne canada for the world cup round 6.
I got here on Wednesday the day of foot inspection. The first day of practice was on thursday. I had pretty hard time to ride my bike on strait line and struggled a lot on the course.
The next day was little better for me and I was riding good till i had massive crash on the fastest section on the track. My front wheel washed out on a berm and face planted my self on the ground pretty hard. That happened on my last practice run before the semi. I didnt feel too confident going in to my semifinal. I got 23rd place on semi. I rode really conservative and was pretty tense all the time missed lines and stuff.
Today I was feeling really good in practice and riding good. After my practice I was confident that I can do good in my race if I keep it together.
Well on my race I didnt keep it together and crashed when the finnish line was on my sight. I went over the bars in the last wood section. I lost my concentration just before I entered the last 10 meter long wood section. For second I had in my mind that now I am in a good run… and then I crashed. The race isn´t over till it´s over! I ended up 34th and I am pretty bummed about that.
Next week we are heading to Bromont for WC round 7. I am looking forward to race there and get a good result.

After racing tree weeks strait it is good to have some time off from races and go do some fun riding with my team mates Steve Smith and Thomas Vanderham unfortunately Filip couldn´t join us due to 4X European champs. This week we are going to hit few different riding spots in Austria.
First two days of our trip we spend in Schladming, where the finals of the world cup will be held later this year in September. Tuesday was our first day fo riding and it was raining really hard all day so we only ended up doing one run and took some photos with a Mathias Fredrikson who will shoot with us the whole week. We got some really cool shot even the weather was miserable.
Our day two was pretty much the same. It was raining on and off but not too bad so we rode all day and it was awesome fun. It was super sloppy mud but not too slippery. We had blast shreding down the tracks with Steve and Thomas! I think it was one the most fun day on my bike this summer!
Tomorrow morning we will leave Schladming behind and go to ride another spot!