Day 2 - Terra Mall, Tres Rios to CATIE, Turrialba - 85 KMs
Sleeping on your own bed before a race it’s always a bonus. My
wife would join my support crew today so we got to the start of day 2 feeling pretty
good, fresh and motivated. This day would consist of a long climb up to the
Irazu Volcano, a rocky traverse to the Turrialba Volcano and a long downhill to
the town of Turrialba. That donwhill and a pretty bruised left hand from the early crash the day before meant the rigid fork wasn’t a good choice and we decided to
change it along with the broken chain for the day before.
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| Colorful hand before starting Day 2 |
I had dropped the
bike off at PuroMTB so they could make the chances and bring the bike to the
start. Unfortunately, it wasn't until 15 minutes before the start that my bike made it to the start venue, so by the time I hopped on the
bike and went to the start I was more than 200 riders behind the leaders.
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| This is what starting mid pack looks like. Photo Fabio Chavarria |
Some
confusion took place during the start as the leaders were given their
corresponding jerseys then we heard 3 minutes to go and a moment later the lead
motos took off and the race started. Bikes were still un-manned on the side as
we started to roll. The lead motos set a fast pace with a group of 20 or so
riders and while I chased hard trying to get on their wheel once the road
pointed up I was in no-man’s land between the lead group and the rest of the
race. With such a long, hard race ahead I decided to settle into my own pace.
Slowly I started to pick off the riders that had fallen off the pace amongst
them Roberto Heras.
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| Catching up to my Brazilian companion for the day. |
On the steep gravel
climb to Llano Grande I caught up to the Brazilian rider that I had seen the
day before and had finished a few minutes behind me and he jumped on my wheel.
We traded pulls early on and made it to the first aid station. Unfortunately my
support crew was running a little bit behind so I got neutral support and sped
off to catch up with my new companion from Brazil that had flown by the check
point.
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| Steady pavement climb towards a volcano |
After getting back to him I got on the front and set the pace for the
first few kilometers up towards de volcano, he took another long pull before
San Juan de Chicua however the next time I asked him to help me he refused, so
I kept the pace steady assuming he would soon drop off my wheel but he stayed
on even after a few accelerations I did to test how strong he was. I just
didn’t want to give the guy a free ride to the top.
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| Photo Fabian Loaiza |
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| Lots of people at the intersection to the Turrialba Volcano |
My amazonic friend took off down
the hill ahead of me and I thought I wouldn’t see him again until the finish.
It turns out he was as bad of downhiller as me and ended up riding together
over the next hour taking turns at showing how slow we could make it down some
of the slippery, rocky downhill sections. As the downhill continued our battle
was decided not by who had the strongest legs but who had stronger arms. He
started to slow down even more to give his arms a break and I just left off the
brakes a little more and slowly pulled away from him and never saw him until
the finish. Once on the pavement, I got into an aero position to get the most
speed on the downhill while pedaling at cadences above 120 RPMs when the road
leveled off a bit. Soon I was near Turrialba and a transit cop on his
motorcycle was waiting to escort me thru town. Although he stayed ahead enough
for me not to get a good draft I just buried myself on those last 4 Kilometers
knowing that the finish was just at the end of that flat section.Turns out
Roman had a surprise for us and less than a kilometer from the finish I saw a
course marshall indicating me to turn right onto this coffee and sugar cane
plantation.
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| Surprise section near the end looked like this |
At first I thought, OK this is not bad, it’s pretty flat and we
would soon turn left and head straight into the finish, however I was proven
wrong when some arrows pointed me to go right up this three little humps. It
took all my energy storage to get up these and my legs were twitching in pain
then we made a long traverse down the hill, back tracked our way almost to the
point we started and it seemed like we zig-zagged this plantation a couple of
times before finally coming onto the pavement and going across onto the school
campus where the finish was. All I could think was that this section was mean
and pointless and a cruel way to finish, however it was an interesting addition
that made us earn our lunch. I ended up crossing the line in 14th
place after 4 hours and 16 minutes of racing. This also moved me up one spot in
the general standings for a 14th overall but it also improved my time
on this stage by over 20 minutes, even with the new surprise section.
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