"At the beginning, I tried to control the race and made sure that no more dangerous men got ahead. Before Meegaste, Gert Kivistik and I made a breakaway and soon Alo Jakin, Martins Blums and Gert Jõeäär came after us," explained Juntunen. The group of five stayed together until the finish. "My aim was to win, and even if someone had come from behind, it wouldn't have stopped me. I'm pretty sure that I had the best leg today," added the winner.

Gert Kivistik, who attacked alone at the beginning of the race, did not get the desired result. "I saw an opportunity to attack before the first sprint and I tried to get a gap while riding over Harimägi, but a big group still caught me. I probably paid a fee later for being so active at the beginning of the race," explained Kivistik.

The Latvian Martins Blums, who was the only mountain biker in the main group, planned to go with the leaders until the end: "The finish was too fast for me because I didn't have enough gears to sprint faster."

Among women, the two best podium places went to Estonia. Merili Sirvel won with a time of 2 hours 43 minutes and 15 seconds. Liisa Ehrberg finished second (+01.36). Lithuanian Daiva Ragazinskiene (+04.13) was the third woman to cross the finish line. "At first I was behind the others, but in the last 25 km I was a leader and drove as fast as I could," said the winner Merili Sirvel.

The results of the Hawaii Express 26. Tartu MTB Marathon can be found HERE.

The next competition in the series of Tartu Maratoni Klassik is the 12. Tartu City Marathon taking place on October 7.