Looks like this was the third time in a row (see 2008 here and 2009 here). My old nemesis Tuomas Lunttila did a great challenge and made me to edge out the best run of the season — well, the first competitive run as well… The route was (based on Google Earth measurements) 300-350m longer than in previous years. This would make it also 1.00-1.20 more in time so I actually performed almost in par compared to previous years. Pretty good result with 20-30K training weeks! The extra thirty secs or so came mainly in the first five Ks. After 7K I tried my best to push away from Tuomas in uphills and also gained maybe 30m lead, which he then took back before the final hundreds. Like Lasse in Moscow Olympics I kicked a lousy sprint that luckily made it today.