La Ruta part 2

The rest of the stage 1 went pretty well but i got to say that if you don't like climbing then you wouldn't like this race.It seems like you are always climbing and most of the down hills are fast and then you are climbing again.The feed zones were good and the people there were very helpful.I went with 3 bottle's on stage 1 and 2 on stage 2 3 4. I wore my back pack with a couple of jacket's in it for stage 3 because the decent of the volcano was cold.The end of stage 1 was at the hotel and you also stayed the night there so you went straight in got your room and showered.You got 2 meals a day breakfast and lunch or supper.Stage 2 was steeper than stage 1 if you can believe it.The grades were as high as 30% By the middle of the stage my toes were burning from all the climbing so i had to stop where ever i could find cool water and soak my feet quickly.I saw a lot of suffering that day but it was alot dryer than day 1.More later.

La ruta part 1

I don't have alot of time so here is a quick overview,i will post more later.We had lost luggage,long waits,trouble speaking the local lingo and a mad man shuttle driver that should have raced nascar who would laugh with hellish glee when he would just about hit pedestrians.It was super hot in Jaco and me and Don got in 2 good prerides before the race.I had the route in my gps so we rode part of stage 1 twice.As for the race Holy Steep Climbs!!!!The first stage was steep,super muddy,hot,long and we were up at 3:30 am to get to the start on time.I had heard about how tuff the first stage was so my game plan was to take it easy so i hung close to the back until we came to the first big climb.Don was in race mode and was in finish the race mode because i new my class was stacked so i let Don take off and didn't try to stay with him at all.I had a great ride but got real dirty.I have never seen mud like that you couldn,t even push your bike threw it so carrying it was your only option.It would get so caked up mud that it would add 20lbs to your bike so you had to scoop it off by hand to lighten to load.I was sure glad i had a lefty fork because i could at least ride the muddy down hills.Alot of the others with normal forks would wipe out because there front tires would not turn.That is it for now more later.

Interview from one of the best

herehttp://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235889-la-ruta-de-los-conquistadores/210723-tinker-post-la-ruta-stage-4

stage 1 interview La Ruta

Here

la ruta story to come soon

had a great ride and will post a race story when i get back to canada.it might be a novel though,lots of stories .it was crazzzzzy.

This dude is hardcore man!