Let me preface this by saying i'm not much of a mountain biker. I love mountain biking, but i'm not a great technical rider, so i'm pretty slow at the descents and this ride had some long, gnarly, rough descents. And though i certainly pushed myself as much as i could while doing this race, i knew i wasn't in contention for anything (other than 69th place, which i barely lost), so i stopped often to take pictures and enjoy some of the views.
I'll list here the course data i got from my garmin. The elevations i recorded are quite a bit less than those the race promoters publish (though that doesn't diminish at all the extent of the suffering on those climbs), and my total kilometer count was usually a little different too.
Race promoters stats for stage 1:
Distance: 95 km
Total ascent: 4,420 m/14,501 feet
My stats for stage 1:
Distance: 93.85 km
total ascent: 10,848 ft
total descent:
i'm posting the total descent as well as the ascent because i think it's just about as critical to understanding the race. It gives you a sense of just how much up and down there is, and although there are some crazy fast descents on paved or grated gravel roads, a lot of the descents are on rough, rocky, rutted roads or trails that take as much work as the climbs.
STAGE ONE
Standing in the Pacific Ocean tuesday night before the race.
The downside of it getting light so early in CR is that they started the race at 5:00 am the first day and 6:30 the rest of the days. That meant that we were usually getting up at 2:30-3:30 am depending on how far we had to shuttle from our hotel to the race start. So, first morning, we have to get up for breakfast at 2:30 for a 3:00 am breakfast, then load the buses at 3:45 to go from our hotel back over to the race start where we get our bikes, drop off our gear bags, and line up. Dang! i didn't set my ipod time to the right time zone and with no alarm clock in the hotel room i overslept. Barely enough time to grab some rolls and a banana before jumping on the bus.
There's a long line at the bike pick-up, and when i finally get there to pick up my bike the woman tells me i can't take it without my id lanyard (which is in my gear bag, which has already been loaded on the truck), this despite the fact that the night before at the orientation meeting they had told us all we needed to get our bikes was our name and our number. After some negotiating in my broken spanish and her even more broken english i get my bike and head to the start.
Big firework display, the Black Eyed Peas' "let's get it started" blasting over the sound system, a countdown to zero, and we're off.
As you see, however, it actually took us at the back of the group almost a minute and a half to cross the start line.
The first 5k out of Jacó are nice and flat. About 2k of paved road, then we turn off onto dirt. Just after 5k, however, the course goes vertical. This is problematic for two reasons: 1) it's steep as hell 2) there are 500 riders trying to ride a narrow, steep gravel road. You can imagine how the domino effect plays out. One person stops or dabs and everyone else behind has to stop as well. The road is rideable, steep, but rideable, but with so many people trying to negotiate it i ended up walking more than i wanted. Language is also an issue. With riders from 30 different countries represented you can't just ride up the left side and yell, "left," because there's a pretty good chance that whoever you're riding up on doesn't speak english.
Push my bike when i have to, and ride as much as i can. It starts to thin out, but even now that we have space to ride some people are still pushing their bikes on account of the steepness. Imagine puke hill on the Wasatch Crest trail, just about five or six times longer.
After a good 5-6 km of this killer climb we reach the top and start a descent on roads as steep as the ones we just climbed. Added hazard now is that we're enveloped in rain clouds. This descent is fast and for the most part smooth, but i can't see more than 20 meters ahead of me.
We ride through a little town where some of the support crews have come to cheer, then get turned off the road onto some singletrack. It looks nice for about 50 meters, then turns into a steep, rocky, muddy, rutted ravine. i ride what i can, walk some, ride some, walk some, then see a long smooth run out and get on my bike happy to have something fast and smooth. i pick up speed, then smooosh, slide out in the soft mud at the bottom of the glide and end up in the bushes. Damn! hit my left leg on the bike frame and twisted the handlebars.
If you look in this pic behind the line of riders you'll see a guy standing to the right. This is the place i went down, and in the 3-4 minutes i was fixing my handlebars i saw three other guys go down as well.
Handlebars are fixed, jump back on the bike and keep going. Lots of little ups and downs, then we take a turn into the jungle and our first river crossing. Stunningly beautiful, even more so for someone like me from a desert state with an average rainfall of 20" or something like that.
Again, ride when i can, but walk over a lot of the river rocks, and then come around a corner to the first feed zone.
Grab some food, drink lots of gatorade, fill the water bottles and add my powdered drink mix to one, then we're off again. It was 25k to the first feed zone and only about 12k to the second. That's foreboding. Lot's of mud, more river crossings, then the impossibly steep and muddy hills. Stop in the river, submerge my bike and try to get the mud out of the derailleurs. Stop in the next river and do the same.
Shit! i didn't train for this. i trained to ride my bike. carrying my bike up and down these steep ass hills is working my calves in ways they're not used and i can feel them starting to burn. What advice would i give to someone training for la ruta? Ride your bike a lot, BUT, you should also find the steepest incline you can, preferably rutted, muddy, and long, and do intervals pushing your bike up AND down. Just do laps. That's the best way i can think of to replicate what you'll be doing on this section of the course.
Ah, the squeal of wet disk brakes from off in the trees. that means two things: 1) we're almost at the top of the climb and 2)the descent is rideable. shit! rideable for about 50 meters, now pick my way through mud-covered rocks on a rutted, slick, singletrack. Even when i can ride it the person in front of me often can't, so i have to walk anyway. Two hours to cover 12k.
Off onto gravel roads now at about 35k and a quick descent down to the next feedzone. Dang! Looks like someone had a close one around a tight gravel corner. Skid marks leading right up to an iron rail on a bridge with a good 30 meter drop to the river below. Bet that guy has more than mud in his shorts.
Feed zone 2, grab some more food, try to choke down some peanut butter sandwiches, i spend half my time at the feedzone forocing myself to swallow, wash it down with gatorade, fill the water bottles and head out again.
About a km out of the feedzone another river crossing, but here there's a mechanic with a big hose attached to a pump in the middle of the river. Yes, please clean my bike off. he sprays it down with the high pressure hose, out of the river on the other side where two more mechanics are ready with big 'ol bottles of lube. spin the cassette, lube it good, and i'm off again.
One more river crossing, and then more climbing. At the top of a climb a group of school kids in the middle of the street yelling at me. What do they want? Que? Autographo? Dang, shouldn't have stopped, they all want my autograph. Don't they know i'm a nobody. Anybody worth getting an autograph from already passed by two hours ago. i start signing as fast as i can. they write my number 470 next to my name. i'm scribbling my autograph so i can get moving, and they want to know my name. It's matt bradley. they write down max, so i write my name for one of the kids so they can get it right, but now they all want it written in theirs. And another girl comes back for a second autograph because the page ripped in her school book when i signed the first.
Quiero hacer una foto. Ok, gracias, tengo que ir. and i'm off again. more quick, short descents and climbs in little river gulleys and small canyons, then another long, steep climb. i pass a few guys walking and i'm tempted to do the same, but keep pushing myself to ride. i'm fried, starting to bonk, got to eat something. finally i cave in and get off the bike to eat while i walk. I put down a chocolate raspberry luna bar and some gu blocks, wash my hands in a hose a woman standing out in the road is holding out for cyclists, get back on my bike and keep going. Hit the next feedzone at the top of that climb, still feeling pretty weak and out of energy. I had ridden some of the early climbs above my LT, and now i'm paying the price. Take a minute, eat lots of food, banananas, choke down more tuna and peanut butter sandwiches, chase them with gatorade. I need more lube though. I see a woman with a revolution mountain sport shirt on, my local bike shop, so i chat with her for a minute, ask if she's got any lube. She doesn't, but the woman she's with does. They lube my bike again, and i head out.
One more big climb, all paved, but long (25k). I settle into a comfortable pace. Keep the heart rate at 155 or so and pedal. Starting to feel better now that i've got some food in me. Man, this would be miserable on a singlespeed i'm thinking as i come around a bend and catch a guy pushing a real big gear. That's a big gear, i'm thinking as i catch him, then realize it's his only gear.
"I was just thinking how rough this would be on a singlespeed, and here you are," i say as i pass. He concedes, but plods along with typical singlespeeder pride.
Recent construction makes the road tacky and slow. In some spots i can actually hear my tires sticking to the new pavement.
The view's amazing. I take in as much as i can, but have fixated on the radio towers i can see a few km ahead. Radio towers mean top of the climb. Pretty soon i hit feedzone 4, the last for the day, stock up again, then get back on the bike. Radio towers are getting closer. Wait, i'm passing the radio towers, but they are not at the top of the climb. What a lousy psych out, this climb keeps going. Damn!
Another 2 km and i'm at the top and start the descent. Off the paved road for some more insanely steep descents on loose gravel roads. Pass a school bus full of kids going around a wide turn and head into a short climb. Gotta piss, so i pull off where our course heads down a narrow, steep, rutted section and the main road continues up. Pull up the spandex, take care of business, finish just as the bus is catching up to me. "That bus has got to go straight," i'm thinking, but it turns down the same road i'm going down, and now i'm behind it. Dang! Not as much room here to pass with no shoulder and a steep drop on the right. Don't want to follow this bus as it picks its way slowly down this hill though, so i pedal hard and squeeze by with all the school kids cheering for me and the bus driver probably calling me a few names.
A few more km of descent, then the road levels for a few km before starting the short, final ascent to the finish. I'm feeling good now. Legs feel fresh. I've got good energy. I pick it up a little to the finish, passing 20 or so people on the last climb. come over a little rise and see the Crystal water banners indicating the finish line. Make my way through some final mud and across the finish in 9'19".
