Vocabulary question

[Melody]

but again what´s 100k or 200k compared to 100 mile/km ride?

Laura, if you need to do a metric to imperial conversion you can get google to do them. Go to http://www.google.com and in the search field type

100 kilometer to miles

and google will give you an answer. You can do this for most measurements. I use it quite a bit when I'm cooking and having to change portion sizes.

So now I can tell that I'm going to do a 3/4-century (70 km) [...]

You can also just say "I'm doing a 70k". Also, when talking centuries, if you're in the US, typically they're 100 miles and to differentiate between 100 kilometers you'll here the term "metric century" instead.

Oh btw peloton is a Finninsh word as well! I got a bit confused since here it means fearless.

Believe it or not everyone, peloton is also an English word. From the Oxford English Dictionary

I. Simple uses.
b. Cycling. A group or cluster of cyclists in a cycle race; esp. the main body of competitors, the pack (PACK n.1 7d)

The etymology of the word, however, is French

[< French peloton little ball, esp. of thread (1417 in Middle French), small body of soldiers (1616), group of competitors in cycling (1884; 1855 in a sporting event in general) < pelote (see PELLET n.1) + -on (see -OON). With sense 1a cf. earlier PLATOON n. and also Spanish pelotón (1737 or earlier in this sense).
N.E.D. (1904) indicates the stress as pelo{sm}ton.]

It looks like the very base root of the word comes from a small body of soldiers. Someone probably, at some point, said that the group looks like a peloton of soldiers and the saying stuck.

Mel the mad OED user

[SnappyPix]

Riding in Finland is cool because there are not that many cars or people and the bike roads are usually kept in pretty good condition and they are all over the place.

Sigh. I'm so jealous!

[HipGnosis6]

Believe it or not everyone, peloton is also an English word. From the Oxford English Dictionary



The etymology of the word, however, is French



It looks like the very base root of the word comes from a small body of soldiers. Someone probably, at some point, said that the group looks like a peloton of soldiers and the saying stuck.

Mel the mad OED user

That's right. The word was originally a French root, and still technically exists in the English language. However, the form we're all more familiar with is "platoon".

And this is what you get for a degree in linguistics - Trivial Persuit wins, mostly.