Finns Can Only Get Better

As calm out of the cockpit as he is within it, this man is a true product of his Finnish hometown – as Anthony Peacock learned on a visit to Nastola for the Valtteri Bottas Duathlon

- Anthony Peacock

There’s a long main road stretching far into the distance, so similar to many others in Finland – dead straight, with just the occasional logging truck to overtake – lined by the ubiquitous pine trees, brooding lakes and little red log cabins: a Sibelius symphony framed within an archetypal landscape. The sun is setting and there’s not a soul to be seen: during the Finnish summer, 8pm is appointed sauna time. Everything stops in a haze of steam and quiet contemplation.

But turn off the main road and approach the seemingly deserted town of Nastola (population, 14,000) and a few incongruous aspects will grab your attention. First, a goth-like man with a ponytail driving a beaten-up Lada that’s at least ten years older than he is. With the amount of smoke it’s producing, he doesn’t need to go home for a sauna. Finland is of course renowned as the spiritual home of heavy metal, counting Impaled Nazarene, Apocalyptica and Children of Bodom among its most famous exports. And this maestro of the moshpit proves that we’ve now penetrated the true hinterland of Finland: the very essence of this fabled country of lakes, vodka, pine and sisu. The places that most casual visitors don’t see.

That’s surprising enough, but the next sight that rolls into view is the Pujalahti Olympic Training Centre: a rambling complex of buildings, running tracks and stadiums in the middle of… well, nowhere. It’s also the headquarters of the first-ever Valtteri Bottas Duathlon, because Nastola is Valtteri’s hometown: the place that defined the childhood and then adulthood of the Mercedes star.