La Ruta de los Conquistadores

Back from La Ruta. The race was a success as well as quite an experience. So much to tell and share with you over the next few days.

I had a great time. Met some new, awesome, people from all over the US, Canada, UK as well as Costa Rica. Hung out with some old friends. Learned some Spanish. Quickly realized that when the Costa Rican's learn how to descend we're all in trouble. Rode consistent from day to day and felt the strongest I've felt all season. 29inch wheels rule all on the descents and day four's railroad tracks. Stan's tubeless saved me from flatting in the same spot (along the last train track section of day four) everyone and their mother flatted. A Costa Rican won the overall title with two more Costa Rican's in the top five.

Final results are tallied and here is where I am:
51st place - Open class
total time of 27hr 44min 22sec
10hr 4min 2sec behind the overall leader
one of three fully rigid singlespeeds
one of eight singlespeeders
one of a small handful of racers on a 29er

In-between sleeping, watching bad movies, eating bad airplane food and lugging my bike box (and smelly bag of dirty clothes) through customs I managed to jot down quite a few notes about each day. More details coming as the week pans out.




This is what suffering is:

(somewhere along the huge road climb in day two)