Why Every Gravel Bike Ride in Finland is a Tiny Holiday!
In this episode, Sam-Erik Ruttmann interviews Sari Puumala, the founder of PK & Company, about the growing trend of travel by biking, specifically gravel biking.
Sari shares her passion for outdoor activities and how she got into endurance sports like triathlon. We discuss the popularity of gravel road biking and the reasons behind it, including the desire for new experiences, quiet roads, and the social aspect of cycling.
We also explore the difference between bikepacking and traditional cycling tours, as well as the opportunities for small hotels and inns to cater to bike packers. Sari emphasizes the extensive infrastructure and endless possibilities for cycling in Finland, and the need for accommodations to be bike-friendly. We continue by discussing the digital tools available for planning routes and exploring unknown trails.
Sari Puumala discusses the fascination of biking and how she plans her routes, especially when exploring unknown trails or destinations. She shares her passion for planning routes and the tools she uses. Sari also talks about the extensive network of gravel cycling routes in Finland and the challenges of creating interesting routes due to the many roads that end in someone’s house.
She shares memorable experiences from her bikepacking adventures and highlights the social aspect of biking. Sari also discusses the efforts made by the city of Lahti to attract international bikers to Finland, including hosting events like the Ironman 70.3 World Championships and the Finland Gravel series. She emphasizes the importance of digital tools and platforms for finding routes and planning bikepacking tours.
Sari Puumala can be reached on Instagram @sora.katriin and @sarikatriin,
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[Music] hi everyone welcome back to the social hotelier podcast with me samic grutman I have a very interesting episode today we’re going to talk about try travel not travel by air but but travel by biking and I think this is a very interesting event and also a feature that is changing in many way how people have see what travel is all about so this episode we have the founder of PK and Company SAR Puma she’s an entrepreneur Consulting small and mediumsized Enterprises shape their business Concepts growth strategies and growth funding methods so welcome s and thanks for joining us today oh thanks Sam uh thanks for having me it’s an our honor uh it’s actually my first podcast so this is well really exciting for me now well you sound very professional I think I think you have been around so long that speaking in public and in front of a microphone is not a it’s not a strange thing for you but uh what is interesting now about you s that could you tell us a little bit about the background because I talked about your professional background what you do in in consultancy but you have a passion for sports and outdoor activities you have been coded that Sports and Outdoor activities is the fuel for everything you do so uh can you tell me about uh what is what is that all about share your your passion oh yeah Outdoors is definitely a big big passion for me and even now sitting in a h meeting room I have a forest behind me um and that really suits me because um uh I couldn’t live without the nature experiences and I also love sports Endurance Sports so combining those two uh yeah it’s a big thing and I I have U I have been privileged to be able to do uh urance Sports and Outdoor life in many different ways um I actually as a kid I didn’t do any sports my family was an outdoor family we did uh hikes and and picnics and stuff like that but uh no sports but then when I was already like 26 27 uh all of the sudden I just decided I wanted to Triathlon it wasn’t big sport at that day in in Finland uh and the whole sport was is a new one and then well I just started I thought that that’s fun and exciting and I I just started doing it and and then uh 23 years later I’ve completed like 10 times iron distance races and and even participated in in the big dance in Hawaii World Champs and um there so many amazing experiences but now yeah I kind of want to shift to other experiences I have the the capability to do all kinds of things with my physics so um yeah I really love to go like for Trails um for more not like like so sterile environments like paved roads um yeah I’ve done swim runs uh which is amazing in Finland where we have lakes and and forests all over the country it’s basically just lakes and and forests so that’s that’s an amazing new sport trail running and yeah gravel cycling is now the big thing I really love Yeah but looking back when you started Triathlon uh you know you have the disciplines of swimming biking and running which one was came easiest for you at the time uh yeah obviously like yeah I’ve done like commuting riding bikes um yeah like in a commuting style and um yeah running yeah like doing some small runs um throughout my life but then swimming yeah that was the the difficult part I’ve been I mean as a kid already from the kid I loved water but um I didn’t have any training like in freestyle proper swimming so that was a big mission to kind of get into but um yeah I have I’ve done so many years that uh it’s something that I can do for for long distances now and I I feel really comfortable going to oceans or lakes or wherever yeah yeah well I had a dream also about Ron but uh because I I enjoyed running cool and I enjoyed biking but swimming was my sort of the uh I enjoy the swimming part but uh I never learned the proper technique to get the Glide and the flow in in swimming so uh so I tried to compensate the running was my passion also and but not as much as yeah much for me it was actually the the Running part but enough about me so but you talk about the gravel road bikes market and uh so can you explain a little bit what is it all about and what explains the interest yes I see look back in my my Sports and Outdoor history and um having done cycling most of my time on paved roads and um yeah uh dur during the offseason with cyclop bikes doing some gravel roads and I remember back in the days I think 90 sometimes in the ‘ 90s already I thought that this could be kind of fun doing like riding fast on the gravel roads but then I thought like well doesn’t exist that kind of sport doesn’t exist and won’t exist but then fast forward to 2020s and especially the postco area suddenly we see in the market the gravel bikes um are I mean the the market is exploding and people are buying gravel bikes um why is that I think there are several reasons I could Pi pick few that I think are are the main drivers uh like for myself I think that uh the area where I lived and I I’ve been riding road bike since 1993 around these areas I’ve done all of the road so many hundred times that I can’t get any any any I mean adventures and new experiences but then when I moved to gravel roads is like each time I can go different roads and especially living in Finland where I have this infrastructure of gravel roads is such an extensive one it’s so exciting and and the cycling all of a sudden even if you go like riding your bike and enjoying the writing you can kind of get an adventure and also um looking all over the world it’s so sad to hear so many accidents and and deaths on in the traffic it’s it’s like a really serious uh thing and and I think people really like to move to more quiet roads um yeah and also when you move to quiet roads you can can get the the more of the social aspect of cycling which I mean it’s it’s a big and important thing in cycling to go uh with your with your cycling teams and and social I mean social right type of Rights if you if you don’t have like a structured training program and and you can chat and have fun talking with your friends you can write in a group head toe which you can’t actually do on on paved roads with high traffic volume so um there’s so many aspects to it that uh you kind of jump into a total different world and still you have the same kind of uh user interface type of thing that you have the same kind of bike this drop bar bike as you have have in in Road cycling and yeah it’s also um kind of thing that um Mountain cyc it’s also uh it’s like in between Mountain cycling mountain biking and Road cycling you kind of have a a not so sterile surroundings go yeah but I I just remember that when we met ER in fact we met around a project in inas oh yeah that’s right inas in in in Arctic La for those people who are not familiar it’s in the west west Arctic laand and uh we met around the project and uh uh I thought I mentioned this before I could talk how it relates to biking is that uh I didn’t realize how how amazingly fit you are because we were actually walking around the site and I was uh having some challenges how to reach up to the top when we were walking around and you didn’t seem to have any problem but more importantly our mutual friend HEI so shout out to hey if you’re listening to this podcast that you were saying that oh let’s go and Sor let’s go and do do a ski uh cross country Street together and so I think both of you went skiing and and he was trying his best to stay stay with you but I think he was not as fit as you because one of the things that we laughed about later on once that when you finish that you said know I was freezing because I had to wait for hakei and and HEI felt like a little bit sort of well okay sorry about that but it was a kind of an anecdote how I remember you s oh yeah H that’s such a fun I tried to be quite kind of not talk too much about it but then actually it was my my business partner ARA who took the the who started to talk about that oh poor s she had to freeze while waiting for ha like no no don’t mention about that let’s appreciate he’s effort and yeah yeah but then then interesting is that uh when we talked to the the business partner for for illas uh we talked about suddenly or I started to study also uh about what’s what can you do in in a ski resort area in the summer then came the biking aspect and and then he started to also develop ideas of how to get this biking aficionados from Central Europe and southern Europe to travel all the way up to to his area and do biking it seems to be that has been growing so I’m kind of curious to um understand uh you know Road biking and it’s popular in Central Europe and sou and southern Europe and I heard Belgium is very big for for biking but what is the fascination to make a journey to Finland yeah yeah yeah I mean that’s an a thing that I hope that um we’ll get the world know why because yeah as a cycling Nation uh cycling is kind of small we have few good I mean internationally rated good cyclists but are in different disciplines but um uh if you think of The Spectators Sports Spectators cycling is not a big thing as as you mentioned like in in Belgium and and Continental Europe where where Road cycling isign massive thing um and we won’t be I believe we won’t be a massive Road cycling destination ever even if they have like very much lower traffic volumes even if the volumes have grown but uh when we talk about Cel cycling this is I mean we have insanely insanely insanely basing infrastructure as a very densely populated I mean not not so densely populated country and we have so much ruler areas um and Roads connected Village to Village and like state roads that are gravel roads and then we have like local gravel roads and then private gravel roads and in top of that we have the the concept of everyone’s rights that um makes us able to use private roads uh with I mean we obviously have to take into consideration that we don’t do it any harm to the Midland owners or the the private road uh facilitators and and don’t do any littering or trespass private areas but other than that we can basically cycle wherever we find a a roads or Forest Road or or just a normal Gravel Road and and I I think we had the figure that like like official like gravel roads there’s like 80,000 kilometers and then when we add all the the Forest roads that are really awesome to ride and also like the cross country skiing infrastructure which are like grally tight of surface it’s like we have just I mean endless endless possibilities and um it’s also kind of inclusive because in areas where you have L like Central Europe where the Alps and mountains are just amazing and I love them but um if if you are not so um experienced cyclist and you don’t want to kind of have a 20 kilm climb in in Finland we have like this Rolling Hills some Punchy climbs and you can gain a lot of altitude um or elevation gains on the routs but um it’s like not like constant huge mountains you just do the Rolling Hills and we have clean air we have lakes we have nice sceneries and also it’s um we have a safe country we don’t have to be I mean yeah we are we can I mean in the countryside you just talk the the I I think it’s so fascinating just that the whole culture when I’ve um moved into the the gravel roads and and doing the rural areas whenever I meet the people somewhere on their yards or whatever we obviously wave our hands and say hello and maybe have a quick little conversation it kind of um feel so more alive when you go to the countryside than than the clean uh paved Roes where you just have cars passing by and they get intimidated and and do all kind of nasty things so yeah interesting so um there is a difference between bike packing which people talk about and then traditional cycling tours uh could you just uh educate me a little bit what what is the difference on on B bike between bike packing and traditional cycling tours yeah I think um yeah the Emergen of of gravel cycling has kind of grown the bike packing um probably also the term terminology also emerged just very recently and uh like bike tours you have uh maybe to I mean that there’s kind of the same thing but there’s the nuances uh in bike touring you maybe go um like pay surfaces and you carry larger amounts of of Necessities with you with this big paneers on your bike but the uh development in in the in the bikes where you have those balls where you can attach the bags or the the bike packing bags on your bike a lighter ones and and you can of um you have more possibilities to to um move on rougher grounds people also do gravel I mean uh do bike backing on mountain bikes kind of bikes and and growel bikes and um yeah you basically carry less NE Necessities with you than probably the the traditional bike touring bikers how do you how do you determine the right balance between carrying necessities and keeping the bike light when you have to travel travel long distances it’s yeah that’s an interesting question cuz um first I have to kind of give my own perspective I have when I bought my first gravel bike I was like I’m never going to do any gra I mean bike packing or anything because uh I love to feel how the bike feels uh uh when I handle it and I don’t want to have any extra kilos all over the bike and I’m very purist that I’m not I’m not going to do that but then that luck thing is that there’s also this concept of of credit card bike packing which means that you have like really like the most Necessities um most necessary things like uh obviously bike tools you have to be able to repair your I mean that that mean something happens to your bike some some easy repairs that it can do along the way and tire punctures repair them and stuff like that and then yeah maybe some some CH clothes clothes for Change and and and just the very little things you can travel very light then yeah use your credit card to stay in the hotel overnight and eat in restaurants and cafes I think that’s something for me and I’ve done a couple of those uh kind of credit card bike packing things because I yeah I like to sleep in the bed and take a shower and maybe wash my my bik kit and and start fresh the next day but then um obviously if you want to do like real bike pecking experience I know those who are like really Pro bike Packers they compare their kilos and liters how much they carry with them and yeah I mean that’s yeah you definitely have to train do short trips before you do like if you go to a longer longer like people may go for years for back backing trips so you really know have to know your your bike your equipment your how you handle the bikes the bags and and and your storage things and and also the kit kit and um you have to be alert of any shavings and and stuff that may may cause really big harms along the way if you’re doing a long long bik B ping tree but then yeah there are variations so um you can kind of choose choose your own own type of bik bik packing but but um yeah I’ve turned even if I said that I’m not going to do any bike packing I kind of a bit intrigued to try I I feel it very fascinating to uh do a back toback days um just sitting on my bike and seeing the surroundings and and finding all the the interesting places you can find on the countryside and and services nice little cafes and and also those um uh we have this famous filmmaker uh film um producer Aki Maki type of we call in cyclist that Aki Maki type of old stores and Shops and and cafes which are kind of cool yeah when you do a time travel back in the in the the past so that’s a Fascination you you find something that you don’t find in any other way so that’s kind of the luxury of of of cycling in in the countryside and and gravel bike packing whatever you call it how how I was wondering because this is a great opportunity for the small hotels familyowned hotels uh in the countryside you know the ins and so on uh have you found that are are are they uh prepared to welcome the bike Packers who are who are traveling just with the credit card andl and they want to have a good night sleep and maybe a place to store their bike or even have some maintenance done or is that still something that need to be developed better uh I think uh I mean you can get I mean awesome experiences um but there’s still a lot of work to do and I think this is a good opportunity that we can take advantage here like in in the travel business here in Finland because um it’s awesome that we have this this um organization um um what do you call you actually have these translations somewhere some Eric this Bates which is like bike travel agency that um have started to um create a platform where you can find routes uh that are curated routes and then with all all all the services picked up and and and fireplaces and and all that kind of stuff and um they also created this um La label that you can have this welcome cyclist you just have to make sure that you have these specific um Notions um that that you have like some equipment for the maybe some bike repair equipment some pumps and and stuff like that and also that you have the mentality that you’re prepared to take even some muddy and very dirty cyclist in your your residence because it can happen if it’s like rainy or or very dusty you you’re not don’t appear very clean and and sterile when you enter the little hotel um yeah but um yeah I think uh there’s a huge opportunity to um create business um business and and develop the business for some very remote places and interesting places and it’s like like the in in US user interface where you can kind of read those places um but um yeah I think the mentality is something that uh have to be kind of um OD that what what the what the cycling people need and like me um sometimes I face like in a hotel it has happened like throughout the years that I have been traveling all around the world with my bike in Triathlon that um some hotels don’t want you to take your bike in your hotel room um but obviously like when you do a road bike or Trion bike you keep it very very clean and tidy because a clean bike is fast bike but when you’re riding in gravel roads the the bike obviously get dirty and dusty so you really appreciate if you have a a place where where you can um clean your bike and then you really want to have it very close to you because you pay you have like 5,000 plus EUR kilo Euros uh for the bike so you don’t want to leave it in the in a random storage room where the delic delicate companies get rude and stuff like that so yeah it’s it’s the treasure it’s your your transportation means and your your loved one of course of course there is a you you you mentioned earlier the the organization there’s a finish Center for cycling tourism and they have a website so all the bikers that you are interested in Finland I think there’s I put into the show notes uh the the link where you can find information could you how do you plan your R routes especially when exploring un known Trails or destinations because I think that must be part of the fascination of of uh biking oh yes like I mentioned that uh all the pain grads I’ve done like millions of times and and that doesn’t give any any extra adventure for me anymore but now that I um actually I realized that um I could actually do each time I go gravel cying even from when I start from my home I could do a new route because uh yeah can do so many many kinds of of different kind of routes but um the planning routes have actually become one of my passions besides recycling itself because it’s like it’s such an amazing because sometimes when I plan a route and I think this maybe it’s just boring one when you look at the map let’s just go and do it and then when I’m writing it’s like how come can I always find such interesting and beautiful places and so inspiring so um I’ve really spent so so many hours on those platforms um and tools that nowadays you have plenty of them you can I mean stest for those that do like real Sports and they want to share their all their activities uh it’s kind of a social media of sport people and you can also draw routs there and then you have cud which is very popular in Central Europe then outdoor active all Trails right GPS and then um yeah also like you told the the which is this um can maybe you have you have the perfect translation for that some Eric um they have this uh platform where they uh try to collect all the curated routes in Finland and I actually remember it was 22 I think when my friend uh came to race in Iron Man Finland in B in Eastern Europe e Eastern Europe I mean Eastern Finland and she traveled to Finland from Germany Germany with her boyfriend in a van and they had their gravel bikes with them and she asked me that um is it like you can only gravel bike in in central Finland and then in laand because at that time the they had the maps they had collected or the r they were basically South by bike or then Arctic by bike or some they call something like that and then when I said to alen that well in my perspective the best places to do gravel cycling is between those places because uh basically this I mean from South Chand you have like so so large extension network but you need those um tools to draw the routes because you have so many roads that end in someone’s house because people want to buy build their houses and Cottages um on on the shore of the lake and if the road just go to their building or their house and they it doesn’t have any connections to the the next house so you just go on one one end Road and and to do it’s like a puzzle building a puzle when you try to create the road that seems like interesting you see the the the Lakeside View and stuff like that but um yeah it’s it’s interesting work and I’m happy that I have been able to do this also in part of my job to to help create routs and and uh then also do some riding also being professional or cyclist because I I get money of curating those routs so yeah some some RS in in EAS Eastern Finland some travel travel destinations is there any particular memorable experience you could like to share or a story from your own bike packing Adventure uh whether it’s been anywhere around the world or or in Finland uh yeah done a lot of of rice um but that that’s been like Road Road cycling in in when I’m not been in Finland that’s a some experiences but um I kind of feel like as far as I think of grael cycling I still have so much to see in Finland and this is such an awesome place that uh if I think of Road biking uh trips I I really prefer going somewhere close to Alps or P or stuff like that but in Finland um they have really cool memories like um thing we’re driving with my friends all through winter it’s like oh we just long those days we go just have fun it’s like being a kid again you go ask your friends let’s go let’s let’s go riding bikes and then you go around in the forest and and then after that you go out for an after ride and have a have a beer or or a burger or stuff like that and I mean that’s the cool thing it’s a social aspect and really having fun and and then enjoying the writing but then uh it’s not always Sunshine like last um Midsummer we uh we meant to go Midsummer festivities in Finland and is a big thing and the end and no no I mean you have this midnight sun and it doesn’t get dark and you celebrate the the bid summer thing and uh we decided to go to our friends college and sped the midsummer but um our mentality as as endurance athletes always that before you have party you need to do something physical before that so we took our gravel bikes our friends took our our equipment so we just took our bikes and and did like the 170k right and um it just rode maybe 100 m to my home and it started pouring rain um there were maybe 20 minut minutes um during the day that it didn’t rain but it rained a lot and then rained even harder and once we came came eventually to the the place of La friend Cottage it was like we’re so wet soaked and and so dirty so mudy and and then I mean it was so enjoyable our friends they had like three different kind of sonas heed for us it’s like this is heaven we get our our P of beer in our hands and we go in the SAA so after that it’s like what an awesome day it was a miserable day at times but uh the whole package Mak it makes it such an incredible moment but um then obviously but some Sunny nice rights they are they are a precious but you can get experience of all kinds of Rights of course very good um one thing which is now uh in happening in in Finland in particular in the gravel biking is that the uh the city of LTI has established itself as a leading destination for gravel biking uh could you speak a little bit about uh about the work that has been done to entice International bikers to come to Finland and why why L is that the some is it by destination on the area special and which makes it more more interesting to for a biker to come to Finland and to L um yeah I think it’s I have to I mean get a big credit for for for last it um for being opening kind of speaking loud of like a sport tourism and they’re open to events and and things that happen around Sports and they consider as as a tourism business because in some some other areas it’s kind of difficult thing because that people don’t trust it feels like a niche area and you it’s not like a real business but they have discovered because obviously they have a long history in Winter um Sports U events uh Ski World Champs and stuff like that so they have a DNA in sports and now because they’re being open to sports events um they have like the I mean mentioning besides the gravel events which I’m going to talk talk more de deeply but also like last summer they have amazing huge event like with the Iron Man 70.3 which half distance Iron Man uh World Champs and there are like 6,000 at least tending so that was a big one and then they also have this uh Finland gravel which is um John Venture of of an American um uh steam bone Springs s SPD grael event organizer and then uh our our big famous athlete for former One driver Bas who is is um owns the event and um it’s it’s um organized by this this um USA based event organizer and they know how to organize events like so the Iron Man it’s it’s like an awesome concept so um that’s I mean kind of jealous that I have such an awesome combination I I would like to see this happening in other cities or other areas as well and they are and also they have other event um series Nordic travel series uh they are organizing an event later are you involved in any of these events yourself um or any of these activities at the moment um actually I’m involved in in part in an event which is happening in in eastern Finland in in fley but um I have the privileged before the the Finland gravel uh landed here in Finland the previous summer I was I was privileged to to join a test ride where they have all these um ambassadors and um media persons also doing like pre um stories and sharing sharing the the kind of the message of of Finland being as a Hidden Gem of gravel cycling and then I also attended the first edition of fin Clover last summer and I’m intending to join this year as well so I I definitely think it’s amazing event and um and also having such a such an amazing person as an advocate of gravel cycling it’s a huge audience and um I see him being um invited to several cycling related podcast nowadays also so uh because also that is um our girlfriend is um pro cyclist so they are I mean power couple for uh gravel cycling message very good so um as many of our listeners know we love technology here at the social hotela and the only way to keep up with new demands of Travelers is to keep up with the latest and the greatest in hotels there is self checkin digital conses and keyless entry entries I’m curious to get your view what kind of technology or automation is making life more convenient for bike Packers these days um already mentioned about those different tools and platforms for finding routes or or planning your own routes I think the the the cated uh route out by different destinations or or some influencers are interesting because you can kind of do a whole B packing uh tour um package by by kind of creating the tour uh route and also highlighting the places to see and highlighting the the best cafes restaurants and local experiences and also the places to stay overnight yeah and so that is I mean the digital digital tools they kind of um en to to I mean uh do we don’t need to join like um Fly service um tour you can do it by yourself and you have the knowledge how to do it but then also U I also have to mention that there are some awesome awesome folish Service uh Concepts where you can go like throughout Finland actually my friend uh is is involved in in event that starts from the most southernmost point of Finland to the most northern most uh point and they do like 200 plus k a day and cross Finland from south to North in eight days so that’s I mean I mean amazing way to say Finland in in a very Comm way but the digital world yeah it’s I mean it’s a must thing without it you couldn’t get know where to move and and find safe um beautiful adventurous places very good well s this has been a very interesting discussion thank you very much for sharing your your views and and particularly your passion about the biking and and how how this can be Finland is really a very interesting destination for people who like to learn about Finland also to see the nature experience the fresh water fresh air and and the peaceful sometimes Solitude that we can offer here in this country but if people are interested to find out more about your activities s how can they do so how can they find do you have a website or are you in LinkedIn or anywhere they can reach out if they have any questions about biking uh I think um there is intensi I’m active in in social media but um I think Instagram is there and I share mostly my the things that I I have a passion for and I have like my personal Instagram account which is s Kine and then I realized that I also have to do a a gravel cycling account because uh I don’t want to only share gravel pictures on my main account so I created a gravel account C Sora is a a word in finished for gravel so I have this this account Sora Kine which is then where I mostly share my rvel C pictures and well I’ll make well very make sure we put those links into the show notes so anyone interested will have a chance to to visit you and whenever you visit the s’s Instagram account please give a thumbs up and follow her her activities and you also learn about biking in in Finland and around the world in the same time so S I appreciate you joining today’s episode and thank you very much for your insights oh thank you so much for having me it was really interesting to talk to you [Music]