Conquering La Ruta - Day 0 and Day 1

Day 0 – San Jose to Herradura - Driving

The day before the race it’s always busy. You plan to have everything ready but there are always things to get ready at last minute. Our friend Shawn Gregory had arrived a couple of nights before and was traveling to Jaco with us. He would too be participating in La Ruta, however he was doing it on a singlespeed. We had to leave San Jose pretty early because due to the capital’s vehicle restriction rules our support car couldn’t circulate in the metro area after 6 am. We made it out of the restriction area just 7 minutes after that and even passed by a transit cop in the last kilometer but he didn’t stop us, however it added some adrenaline early on to our day. After a breakfast stop in Orotina we continued onto Jaco where we hopped off the truck and onto the bike to ride the first few kilometers of stage 1 which included on big climb. 

45 minutes later I was covered in sweat and at the top of the initial climb after giving my legs a good warm up of what would come next day. The rest of the day I tried to stay off my feet and speed up the recovery process. We then drove the truck to the 1^st aid station to see if it was feasible to drive there on race day to get assistance but given how long it took us, we decided to skip that and I would just get neutral support at that spot. Later in the day we stopped by the race hotel and picked up my race bag, checked in and listened to the pre-race meeting. From there my dad and I grabbed some Italian dinner in Jaco, where our hotel was. Once everything was ready all I had left was to go to bed and get some rest.

Day 1 – Playa Herradura to Universidad para La Paz, El Rodeo – 100 KMs

3:45 AM came way too soon, however I got my race day breakfast consisting of granola and yougurt, peanut butter and jelly sandwich and coffee. My uncle Greivin had arrived later the night before but he would join my dad as my support crew for this day. We drove to the start in Herradura and the time just flew by, before we knew it was time to head over to the start on the beach. 

Photo by Bici Aventura

The buzzing of a helicopter got our nerves on alert but that was the preview of the next several minutes after the start as a group of more than 500 races navigates on semi-controlled format from Herradura all the way to Jaco. Those 6-7 KMs were crazy, I tried moving as far forward as possible but as the lead car would slow down the group would swell and you could hear tires rubbing and screeching on the pavement. Once on the dirt the pace went up and the peloton slimmed down a bit then on the first climb of the day the selection would be made and there were about 20 of us already ahead. A group of 16 riders went up the road while I stayed back on a smaller chase group of 6 but we wouldn’t stay together for long, by the time we reach Bijagual it was just me and on other rider from Mexico chasing. We worked together until the downhill to El Sur where I had to take a more cautious approach riding a fully rigid bike. I ran down a couple of technical sections then made it to the first aid station at El Sur. I refilled my bottles there to get me through the next section, the famous Carara National Park crossing.  I had all the intention of breaking the spell of bad luck that I’ve had on this section, whether during races or just pre-riding, so with my mind completely focused on getting through without problems I rode my bike off the check point and down the rocky banks of the first water crossing, I motorcycle ahead of me crossed the creek on the right side so I notice it was possible to ride through it as it was just a few inches deep and I saw what it looked like a clear path down the middle and went for it full speed. Turned out what looked like a clear path was a huge white rock in the water which I hit with such a force that it launched me forward, making me perform a superman like flying routine that landed me near the edge of the water where my left hand was stopped by another big rock. I collected myself, picked up my bike and confirmed that everything was working OK then instinctively continue to race. The next river crossing was just a few yards away so I opted to run that one and remounted afterwards but pain started shortly after to pulsate from the muscle below my left hand thumb. I figured it wasn’t broken because I could move it, so I figured I would just ride on and check it later.  That’s not the way I wanted to get into Carara but once again I reminded myself to stay positive and so I did. I rode what I could, dismounted and ran the sketchy parts without over exerting myself and soon I would catch the Mexican rider I had been riding with before. Up until that point I hadn’t talk to him, so on one of the hiking section I asked where he was and mentioned that my wife’s family was from Baja California and the guy opened up. We chatted along as we trudged through the jungle as the mud started to ease off, indicating that we were near the end of Carara. On the next river crossing I stopped to remove some of the mud off my bike and so did my companion but as I started pedaling up the river’s bank my chain snapped. I couldn’t believe it. I had never broken a chain on a race before and didn’t even have a chain tool to fix it, but as Miguel, that was the name of my Mexican savior, went by he asked if I had a tool and threw me his when I said I didn’t. So I went onto work to try and mend my chain. I figured it took me at least 10 minutes to fix it, however it felt like an eternity but only 5 riders passed me during that time. I got back on my bike and tried to recover the lost ground while being cautious not to cross chain too much to avoid breaking the chain again. What I hadn’t mentioned was that I was riding a single chain ring up front, so I had fewer options and in a nut shell ended up spending a lot of energy and working harder than planned until the aid station in San Pedro but I passed all 4 of the 5 riders that had gotten by me during the mechanical. 

Photo by Fabio Chavarria

My dad and my uncle got me refueled there and Miguel and I started the hour long climb towards Grifo Alto. On the early slopes I felt Miguel was having problems and I was doing most of the work then about halfway up and Swiss rider went by and I jumped on his wheel leaving my DF friend behind. The Swiss rider had suffered on the heat of the jungle but as we climbed the weather got cooler and he keep a steady pace. Steady and a little too high for me but I hung on until about 1 KM from Grifo Alto where I realized I had been in the red for the last 20 minutes and the wheels of the bus were coming off. I back off the pace and tried to recover until the aid station, unfortunately my support crew didn’t make it on time so I had to stop and get neutral support. While I was doing that Miguel caught up to me and we both rode off the aid station together. Less than a kilometer from there we heard the rumbling of knobby tires on the pavement and as I looked back I saw Monique “Pua” Mata, the female leader going by me like a freight train. Miguel jumped on her wheel I while I tried to keep them in sight they both rode away. At that point and with 3KMs to the top of the climb and more that 30 to the finish I figured I was not only getting beat by a “Chilango” but I was also getting “Chick’d” that day. The next three KMs were hard but I kept a steady pace and did my best to recover. The following 10 KMs would be mostly downhill or flat so that help then I had some rolling terrain and the climb to El Rodeo where the finish was. I was surprised no other riders passed me but by the time I got to the bottom of the downhill I felt stronger and picked up the pace.

Photo by Diego Solis

Shortly I started to see Pua up in the distance. Not knowing exactly how long it was to the finish I started hear anywhere from 3-8 KMs from the people on the side, so I rode hard but without going into the red and caught Pua about halfway up the climb then the number of people on the side got bigger so I knew I was getting close until I finally saw the flags and banners of the finish line which I crossed in 16^th place after almost 6 hours of hard riding.

Photo from Bici Aventura

Later in the day we would find out that one of the riders ahead of me had been DQ’d for taking assistance outside the permitted areas, so that put me in 15^th overall.