Matti Lehikoinen

Joining Chain Reaction Cycles Intense

Matti — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:17:45 +0000

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……

Injury Update

Matti — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:42:14 +0000

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.

Bromont,

Matti — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:51:34 +0000

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.

MTSA race report,

Matti — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:22:50 +0000

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.

Road trip stop one Schladming,

Matti — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:46:58 +0000

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!

Maribor race day

Matti — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:38:10 +0000

Today was the semi and finals for Maribor world cup round #5. It rained down really hard the day before and qualification got cancelled so it was today. Morning practice started already at 07.00 am the whole schedule got rearranged for the live tv broadcast.
It was still really muddy in the morning and super slippery. I crashed really hard in practice and struggled to ride my bike and keep it going strait.
My seeding run was absolutely the worst run I have ever had. I didn´t crash but the moments that I had on my bike I should have crashed like 5 times. Some how I managed hang on and didn´t crash. I ended up on the 23rd place and was really disappointed about that because I didn´t score any points for the overall.
The course dried up a lot from the semi to the final. I put dry tires on and it was good call. I managed to take 18sec off my seeding time in the finals.
I sat on the hotseat for while before I got knocked off. I made pretty big mistake at the end of the track and that cost me some time, but I guess that’s racing.
I ended up on 8th place again like in fort bill. I was pretty happy that I pulled a good result again and I am riding consistent.
Next week we will have road trip with the team. We are going to ride in Schladming and few other spots. Stay tuned!

Photo: Sven Martin

Qualification Cancelled,

Matti — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:25:29 +0000

The word in the pits was yesterday that it will be cold rainy today. The crazy weatherman was right! It was cold and started to rain really hard before practice.
It´s been raining pretty much all day strait. Due to thunder the chairlift is closed and the qualification is cancelled and moved for tomorrow.
I was able to do 2 practice runs and it was really hard to ride down. Really muddy, freezing cold, slippery roots and hard to see anything. Well I thought it was still pretty fun even it was hard. So I am pretty bummed that qualification is cancelled.
Hope we will have more luck with the weather tomorrow!

Maribor

Matti — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:15:00 +0000

From Willingen we head to Maribor Slovenia. We were supposed to do a little road trip but instead we decided to go to Maribor and hang out there.
We have been having really good time in Maribor. It has been really nice weather so we have been swimming and riding DH Tuesday and Wednesday on some amazing tracks.
We did the course walk on Thursday with Rob Warner and Freecaster. Track is pretty much the same as before, they made few little changes but nothing special.
First day practice was today and it was pretty chill. I did only 4 runs and wanted to save my self for the race. It´s was really hot day and track is running really fast and super rough at the same time. It has a lot of roots and braking bumps and there are also few spots where it´s really hard to get used to the darkness cuz you come from bright light to dart so you are pretty much blind for a moment. For tomorrow and for the rest of the week are expecting heavy rain… So we´ll see tomorrow what happens, it will make the track interesting!

Photos Gary Perkin.

Willingen Race day,

Matti — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:15:25 +0000

Today we raced the finals of wheels of speed In Willingen Germany. Yesterday was the seeding run and I got 10th place. I wasn’t too happy with that and I knew that I can make up some time in the finals. I blew few sections on my seeding and I could have been smoother.
In the finals I managed to pull a smooth run and took 4sec off of my seeding run.
I ended up on 5th place and was happy to get my first podium of the season. It was really tight in times and I was only 1.6sec off Gee Atherton who won the race in front of Mich Hannah by just 0.01sec. I am pretty happy to get good result on a track that I have never liked too much because it has so much pedaling and it´s not really technical.
Tomorrow we will head to Maribor Slovenia for the world cup round 5. On a way to Maribor we will hit some riding spots in Europe and do a little road trip with the team. Stay tuned for more updates from the road trip!

Willingen

Matti — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:35:17 +0000

After the race in scotland we had a little road trip on Monday with the Evil team bus. It was pretty cool just to drive around and chill for a day. Tuesday we fly to Germany and waited in Dusseldorf till the bus came over with the ferry and picked us up. It´s been few boring days in the hotel pretty much doing nothing all day.
Now we are in Willingen Germany and it Sucks it´s cold, rainy and wind . Practice is canceled due to bad weather, wind is blowing over 80km/h at the top of the “mountain” so too dangerous to ride. Hope we will have better luck tomorrow and be able to ride. I am pretty tired to just sit around! I wanna go ride my DH bike!!