Team Edux has been working diligently towards advancing Finnish long-distance skiing. Last winter, the team placed 20th in the Ski Classics Pro Team competition, and their aim is to climb up the ranks towards the top of the world. The next step is to break into the top ten Pro Teams in the competitive field.

Team Edux continues with the same core lineup as last year: Olli Tyrväinen, Isac Holmström, Joonas Sarkkinen, and Swedish reinforcement Sofia Lindberg. Pro Team Director Olli Tyrväinen explains in an interview with Maastohiihto.com that last year was also a learning experience. Erik Storvall and Noora Kivikko retired, transferring the responsibility of the team to Olli and top skier Isac Holmström.

“If we look back at last year, we had significant changes. Erik also stepped down from the manager role, so the responsibility shifted to me and Isac. We decided to focus on providing the existing skiers with the best possible conditions to achieve their full potential. We didn’t have the resources or time to assemble a very strong team. We should have recruited more female athletes to perform better in team competitions. Now Isac and I have gotten into the swing of things, and we know what needs to be done in the future,” Olli explains regarding the starting point of last season and looking ahead to the coming years.

Despite some challenges, the past winter went quite well for the team, with Vasaloppet being the highlight of their success. Isac Holmström was the best Finnish male skier in the legendary race, finishing 40th. Olli himself was the second-best Finnish skier until a few kilometers before the finish, but Veli-Matti Räsänen passed him towards the end.

“I can say that we managed to put the pieces together well for that race. Another race we put a lot of effort into was Marcialonga, where we also excelled in terms of support. We had other good performances, and Isac had many strong races. Sofia Lindberg came close to the top ten and finished 12th in La Diagonela, for example. Personally, I managed to perform well in those big races. Throughout the winter, there was a bit of fatigue, which affected some races,” Olli reflects on their achievements.

Read More: The complete Pro Team Ranking Season XV

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Olli is also pleased with the performance of the new recruit, Joonas Sarkkinen, in long-distance skiing. The team’s goal was to get Joonas hooked on Ski Classics, and this goal was achieved.

“Joonas got excited about it and will be participating in more of these races next winter. The investment he made for this season paid off with his best career placements at the Finnish Championships, finishing in the top ten four times. It was a good winter for him. We’re eagerly waiting to see what he can achieve next winter when he gets more specialized training.”

Team Edux also achieved success on the domestic front, with Isac winning BotniaVasan, Jyväskylä Ski Marathon, Fäbodaloppet, and Ylläs-Levi. Success in Finland is important for the team and its supporters, bringing visibility in local media.

The team now aims to develop on several fronts. Key sponsors are continuing their journey with the team, and new blood has been brought in. As a new offering, the team provides partners with a trip to the 3 Zinnen Ski Marathon in Italy.

“We’ll arrange everything for them there, from waxing to accommodations and logistics, and facilitate equipment acquisition through us and Eric Storvall’s coaching program. This has garnered considerable interest from various entrepreneurs, and we hope it will also help in assembling the budget. The trip also serves as a networking opportunity for our partners, where they can develop business-related opportunities with each other. Overall, things are going well for us, and negotiations with new skiers are underway. Through this, we’re trying to bring some momentum to our team in the group race.”

When discussing negotiations, Olli points out that Finland still holds somewhat conservative attitudes towards long-distance skiing and its training.

“Athletes themselves aren’t as conservative, but coaches and support staff are. They feel that these races and our way of training are too demanding. However, there has been a lot of interest from athletes this spring. Frankly, there are more eager ones than we can accommodate,” Olli comments on the domestic sports scene’s attitude towards long-distance skiing.

He gives an example of Anni Kainulainen, who fell ill before the start of the season. The team tried to find a replacement female skier, and many skiers were eager to participate, but several coaches gave negative responses.

“They said that a two-race weekend in Central Europe is too strenuous, and it would affect the Vuokatti Scandinavian Cup. Many fear that level of competition. Personally, I see it as an opportunity for development rather than a crushing burden. However, there are good examples, and Joonas’s success last winter shows that Ski Classics races can be done and still achieve results in standard races. He participated in Marcialonga and La Diagonela, and those races immediately raised his performance level. Long-term investment in upper body capacity surely pays off on other courses as well.”

The Ski Classics Pro Tour also includes shorter races during the season, and especially the early season prologs are an easier entry point into the challenging series. Olli mentions the “gate theory,” where new entrants should be encouraged to try the sport through these shorter races and possibly become interested in longer distances. However, he also emphasizes that the series should be built on the foundation of major and well-known long-distance races, and too many short races should not clutter the season’s calendar.

As the new season approaches, the team has already begun rigorous training for the upcoming winter. The first joint camp is scheduled for mid-June in Jyväskylä, with Maastohiihto.com present. What training innovations are expected for this summer and fall?

“Athletes have their own personal focus areas where each invests according to their own circumstances. Camps are still planned to increase, and last season we had five camps, and now it will be at least seven. We focus heavily on joint training. We may have a final camp abroad at high altitude before the season starts, but mainly, we’re in Finland. The conditions here are more than sufficient, so that won’t be an issue.”

The team aims to break into the top ten in the team race, and on the individual side, they aim for top 20 placements for men and top ten for women. With ongoing negotiations, success in youth categories might also become possible if good under-26 skiers can be recruited.

Olli believes that Ski Classics is a good brand. The competition calendar can be refined, and perhaps there are already too many races. Ylläs-Levi was an important ski event for Finns, so its absence is noticeable.

“We definitely need a race in Finland where athletes can gain visibility, and skiers in standard races have the opportunity to try the sport and possibly become interested in it. It would bring us better opportunities to attract partners as well. We can take people to Central Europe, but lower costs would come from domestic skiing.”

The Pro Tour competition is now missing in Finland, but otherwise Olli sees that the development of long-distance skiing in Finland has moved forward. Kati Roivas’ breakthrough last winter has brought visibility to the entire sport, giving athletes the belief that this sport can be a profession and earn a good income.

“Hopefully, Kati’s success will spawn other breakthrough skiers in the sport, and yes, we definitely need them. Of course, it is not our job to grow domestic skiing events, and this is more of a population-level issue, i.e. how do we get Finns excited about endurance sports. However, in Finland we are better informed about what Ski Classics is and what it requires. We should get more active information from big ski resorts and learn about what this is in practice. Nowadays, this activity is quite different from the training of a standard-distance skier. Many people think that endurance training is the same as it has been for the last 50 years, but yes, there are new things coming out all the time. In order to stay involved in that development, we need to be able to build relationships with big Swedish and Norwegian teams. That way we would get information about training, equipment, waxing, and everything related to performance.”

With wise words and cooperation with teams and skiers from other countries, Finnish long-distance skiing could be effectively moved forward. According to Olli, no official cooperation patterns have been set up yet, but it would really be needed. Isac is well networked in the long-distance skiing side of Sweden, so Team Edux can get new lessons and support from there.

In our discussion, we move on to consider how it would be possible to do joint trainings and camps with the ski teams of nneighbouring countries. In Sweden, long-distance skiing is now very popular, and the public follows the sport with great enthusiasm on television on the country’s main channel. We both state that the atmosphere at Ski Classics is open and tolerant, so such cross-border cooperation could very well be possible.

At the end of the interview, Olli says that the team’s camps and training programs are published on social media, and everyone who wants to can participate. At the camp in Jyväskylä, local skiers are welcome to train, and athletes from Kainuu at the camp at the turn of July and August.