Mauri Rautavaara

Olle Mauri Rautavaara (born 7 October 1979) is a Finnish professional racing cyclist for the Conquering Earth Racing Team (CERT) and winner of the 2010 Speed of Alborea race. In 2008, Mauri became the first Finn to be accepted into the CERT group. He won the 1999 and 2005 Scotblitz challenges. In 2010 he became the first Finn to place first in the Speed of Alborea, in which he rode his uncle's bike.

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Early Life
Mauri was born on 7 October 1979 at the Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland to Anna Rautavaara, a payroll manager, and Mikael Rautavaara, a signalling technician. He spent his childhood in Kallio, Helsinki, until his parents divorced in 1982 and he moved with his mother to Lahti, also in Finland. At the age of 10 he contracted malaria while on holiday in Rwanda but soon recovered. At the age of 15 almost all of his near-immediate family moved to Edmontville, New Scotland.

Early Career
Rautavaara started his international career as a member of the New Scotland Institute of Sport RCT, under head coach, Sven Dujmovik and RCT coach Vernon Trottier, both renowned in their field. He won the 1999 and 2000 New Scotland Under-23 championships and a silver medal at the junior world time trial championship. In the autumn of 2001 he moved to full-time road cycling and rode for Team Toyota until 2003. He then joined the QuickStep UCI ProTour Cycling Team. He came nineteenth in the 2004 Tour de France.

2006
Mauri placed seventh in the 2006 Tour de France, eleventh in the 2006 Speed of Alborea and won the 2006 Tour de Langkawi. He was admitted to hospital for tubercolosis but recovered.

2007
Mauri placed sixth in the Giro d'Italia and won the Tour de Langkawi for the second time.

2010
Mauri made a return to major races by winning the Tour de Langkawi for the third time, the Giro dell'Emilia and placing third in the Tour de Pologne. He also appeared in a telivision advert for the New Scotland Wildlife Society.

2011
Mauri swam across the Handel Sea and his time was the eighty-fourth fastest time ever recorded. He also appeared in a Swiss telivision advertisement for Rolex.

Personal Life
He is married to Scarlet Sutherland, a New Scottish acoustics consultant. They met at St. William's R.C. College in Edmontsville, New Scotland. He has a daughter named Camille. He currently resides in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He plans to start racing in South Asia and has bought a home in Pattaya, Thailand.