A day at the races - Lapland style

The final of the Poro cup today on the main lake at Äkäslompolo. 

The idea is pretty simple, you take a hotted up reindeer and use it to tow you round a 1km course as fast as possible. Some riders use downhill skis, others use lightweight Nordic skis, but they all go like the clappers. The start is using an opening box arrangement like at the greyhounds and is a side-by-side race of up to 8 riders. At full tilt they can top 50km/h, which looks pretty scary when you are behind a crazed group of hairy legs with plate like hooves kicking clods of snow everywhere. Sometimes the riders let go and the Reindeer then has a a fun time trying to escape the course to head for the forest or trots nonchalantly back to its enclosure.

It makes for a spectacular afternoon on the ice. They also run time-trials for the kids. The one in the extra who looked barely out of nappies, was hitched up by his Mum and set off round the course. The time was 75.6 secs for the km and set the fastest time for any of the riders we saw today.