The Lake Paijanne Enduro lived up to its epic status with 800 kilometres around the Finnish lake, 26 tests totalling six hours timed racing where Peetu Juupaluoma took his maiden “Päitsi” win.

“Lots of snow” is a feature of Finland’s classic enduro around Lake Paijanne, the two day enduro has been a round of the EnduroGP World Championship in previous seasons but has been left for Scandinavian specialists agaihn in 2022.

Päitsi ’22 began on Saturday with really soft snow making it a harder day than normal as riders struggled in the conditions.

Eemil Pohjola was the pre-favourite having won the previous two Paitsi races and dominated all the Finish winter series rounds so far. But things didn’t go to plan for the RedMoto Honda rider who first hit a tree in the first test and later got lost on the transfer.

The tree knocked the wires and Eemil lost 12 minutes fixing it in the forest. Getting lost in the transfer was the bigger problem though costing him 18 minutes time penalties.

That opened the door for first Antti Hänninen to take the lead on Saturday morning before Peetu Juupaluoma took the advantage as the afternoon progressed.

Check some of the action (on and off the bike...):

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Sunday saw Juupaluoma out front by a minute, adding to his lead and controlling the race all day. Hänninen went on to repeat his 2021 second place finish ahead of Markus Michelsson third.

“I made lots of mistakes Saturday morning and crashed many times. But Saturday afternoon and evening I rode really good and carried that in to Sunday.” Explains Juupaluoma.

The Kytönen Motorsport Husqvarna rider did not have time to party but instead jumped into his van and headed for Spain to begin training for the EnduroGP Word Championship series where he will ride the Enduro Junior class in 2022.

2022 Lake Paijanne results:

1. Juupaluoma Peetu Husqvarna JSMK 5:58:08,00

2. Hänninen Antti Husqvarna SsMK +1:15,60

3. Michelsson Markus KTM TMK +3:24,74

4. Tamminen Mika Beta JSMK +6:42,62

5. Puhakainen Eetu TM HlMK +7:24,20

6. Laankoski Niklas Yamaha KaMoKe +7:35,52

7. Ahtila Antti KTM HlMK +12:00,04

8. Juhola Albert KTM MäntsMK +14:26,12

9. Mukkala Janne KTM VMK +18:23,55

10. Tsutsunen Pasi KTM JSMK +21:20,74

 

Photo Credit (& help with the words): Jani Hovi | XRacing.fi