Originally Posted by hsmed
Actually there is not much in the article about how Loeb has won the hearts of the Finnish fans. It is 'explained' in the text below, which is cut out from the article:
....it's worth explaining how he won over the hearts of the thousands of Finnish hardcore at the podium celebrations. From the noise, you'd have sworn a local was standing on the top step.
"I told the crowd that this year, maybe because of the performance, that I felt I had a lot of supporters," he says. "It felt different from 2008, when I beat Mikko [Hirvonen]. Then I felt some people were a bit angry against me, but this year I didn't feel anything like that. This year I had good support from the public. Everybody was waving and saying things were good. It felt nice on the podium. It was good sport."
Finally, the Frenchman appears to have won over the Finns – and they're about the hardest audience for him to play in front of. Finland is a proud nation with an exceptional history in the sport; the Flying Finns are rallying's All Blacks – they don't take defeat well, especially not at home, and their supporters are the most partisan of them all.
But, last weekend, they finally got Loeb. Yes, he spoiled their party, but it was like they appreciated, acknowledged and accepted that Loeb really is the king of their sport.
...and that's it. The rest of the article basically deals with who can stop Loeb from winning. And the answer is (based upon the result in Finland): Nobody, really - for the moment.
