Conquering La Ruta 2012 - Thanks to...

So La Ruta de los Conquistadores 2012 is now over and I have finally put together a recap of what I experienced every day of this event, so over the next couple of days I’ll be posting recaps of the event; however I’d like to start with the most important one, the one that thanks all the people that made it possible for me to participate on this event.

First and foremost thanks to my wife, not only during race week but for all her unconditional support always, to my mom and dad for ensuring that I had everything I needed for the event and my uncle for taking several days off his busy life to come and drive all over the country following me from aid station to aid station. My aunt Guiselle and her family; for welcoming us to their house in Turrialba and taking great care of us. My sisters Erika, Jessika and Viviana and my bothers in-law Hansel  and Alfredo for offering us their help on anything we needed and their continued support. Don’t want to forget my friend Roberto, who is one of my most loyal followers and the person that’s always just a phone call away and always willing to help when needed. To my family that has helped us in many different ways but most importantly for being on top of our happenings on training and racing. To all my friends near and far for sending us their words of encouragement via facebook, e-mail, text, phone calls and in person. Those sincere words meant a lot to us.

Thanks also go out to our sponsors, without their support it wouldn’t have been possible to participate on this event.

Robert and Marie-Danielle at Palmex Costa Rica, whose commitment to cycling goes beyond racing through campaigns such as the Cuidenos to promote cyclist awereness for the communities in the southern region.

Anthony Alvarado and our friends at PuroMTB Bike Shop, for their work to ensure our Niner bike was always ready for the race regardless of the any mechanical problems from the day before. Special thanks for allowing us to borrow the rigid Niner fork that we used on Day 1 and provided a significant advantage on such a grueling day.

Dean Henthorn at BicycleWorldTV.com, without your continued support to ensure I have the equipment, hydration and nutrition that I need to participate on races year around.

Wayner Barrantes and friends at Almacen El Colono La Jungla in Uvita de Puntarenas, for his support and for planting the seed about getting this project of competing in La Ruta off the ground as well as for being one of my training partners as I prepared for the event.

Bob Swanson at the Roadhouse 169 Restaurant in Playa Ballena, Puntarenas. His love for cycling is contagious and when I asked him to support me on this adventure he didn’t hesitate. We’ll stop by soon by the Roadhouse to share to race stories with you and plan more adventures.

Ron McDonald at Osa Mountain Village Water Adventures. Ron runs one of the coolest tubing tours in the Costa Rican southern region and he’ll soon be offering rafting adventures on some great rivers in the area such as the Coto Brus river and he too was willing to help us without asking questions or asking anything in return.

Lastly I want to thank all my fans and strangers that offered support even on the side of the road, on messages via Facebook, by phone, e-mail or just by sending good vibes our way. I really appreciate your support and hope to have made you all proud.

Thanks,

Jeff Herrera

The Easy Way and the Right Way

It's said that life it's a constant struggle between the easy way and the right way. This morning I chose the right way when it came to decide what kind of workout I would do for the day.It was already a dark, cloudy morning; so I could have stayed in bed and do nothing, however my wife brewed some coffee and made pancakes which got me off the bed quickly.
Slowly I gathered my things and got ready for the day's workout. I decided I would go for a mountain bike ride as most other Wednesdays, yet again, the easy way would have been to go for a easy road ride along the coast.
A few weeks back I had discovered this off road heading East from Uvita and away from the coast. The road gradually climbs out of town. There are a couple of shallow creek crossings then after crossing the third creek there is nowhere else to go but up. When I say up, picture your toughest local climb then make it a few degrees steeper and a little longer. Add tropical humidity and you have what I consider one of the toughest sustained climbs in the area if not in Costa Rica, and I chose to ride that today.
The cloudy day seemed like a good day to try and ride that climb all the way. Last time I attempted it, I failed about 2/3 of the way then I ran out of water and had to turn around. Today, prepared with a Camelbak full and an additional bottle just in case and the total absence of direct sun I thought I would conquer it, however less than a kilometer into the gravel I saw bulldozer tracks. With the recent rains, I figured they would be doing some minor repair work on the road. A couple of kilometers up the road I came up to the bulldozer already on it's way back. Just the amount of dirt displaced by its tracks was making the road muddy and the sticky mud was adhering to my Geax AKA summer tires, but this was only the tracks, no sight of earth moved until I reached that third creek.

The once considered my toughest climb was upgraded to my toughest hike a bike. Mud ankle deep and the steep grade made the slow walk up the hill an all out effort. I stopped a couple of times to catch my breath. At one point, I couldn't believe I had ridden this a few weeks ago. Granted the ground was hard and dry but the grade was the same and now I could barely walk up it. 45 minutes later I reached the spot where I had turned around before. The whole climb had been redone by the bulldozer so it was impossible to ride, however that's as far as it got, from this point on the road was in its normal condition. A little wet and still really steep but not too muddy, so I rode all of it, including sections near or above 30 degree incline until I got to this.

This was unrideable, in fact even hiking up it was difficult. As always, the pictures don't do the justice for the climb but this should help:

Little upper right corner of the Garmin says the gradient was 31 at this point. The climb continued for another kilometer or so before reaching a huge quarry with an spectacular view of the Whale's Tail in Uvita.

This view made all the struggle to get up the hill well worth it.
After refueling and taking in the scenery I continued on to a town called El Socorro where I met an old guy that was pretty sure I was crazy for riding my bike. I asked him some directions to close the loop and continued on. After a little more climbing I reached a town called Aguas Buenas sitting on a ridge line about 1100 meters about sea level. From there it only took 30 minutes of brakes squealing, behind the saddle downhilling to loose all the vertical gain and get back down to near sea level.
Cruising home, I took a look at the mountains in the distance where I had ridden and knowing that perhaps that wasn't the easy way to do a workout, but it felt like the right way!

Quarterly Recap

I wasn't planning to take so long between blog updates, but the short Facebook updates were a lot easier and reached more people that this, however today I figured it would be good time to recap what has happened over the last six weeks and what's coming up.
I had so much fun at Bonelli, where Velonews got a picture of me passing JHK and put it in their May edition, that I decided to race the second ProXCT at Fontana. I got a couple weeks of decent training in Phonex before heading back to California for a showdown in Funtucky. The weather on the days before the race transformed the normally dusty, bumpy course into a tacky, velcro like type of course. In addition to that, organizer added a few more switchbacks to the already long climb which made it a real tough course.

On race day, I found out I would be starting off from 3rd row which was a great morale boost. I lost only a few spots during the prologue lap, however I gained them back on the long climb.



Long train of riders going up the hill on lap 1,



By the end of the first lap I had moved up to the top 20 and rode steadily for the next couple of laps. By lap 4 of 5, I had moved up to 13th place and things were looking great however exhausting was settling in and I probably missed a few opportunities to eat. Once I got to the top of the long climb I felt the bonk coming on but I figured I would recover on the technical downhill and eat something. Unfortunately, shortly after that I cut a corner too short and sliced my rear tire. It took a few stops for the tire to seal at about 15 psi then I redlined for too long trying to regain the lost time and got a full bonk. Going up the hill on the last lap was painful and I had to dismout. Nursing a leaky rear and an engine running on fumes I made it across the finish line in 50th place.

Next day I somewhat redeemed myself with an 18th place finish in the Short Track event. Battled most of the race with this group which included former World Champion Bryan Lopez but he still got me at the end.



Chase group trying to get into the top 10

A little dissappointed, I went home and cranked another two weeks of hard training in preparation for the AZ State Crit Championship. Training included a couple of visits to the highly competitive Tuesday Night Worlds Crits at the Phoenix Municipal Stadium parking lot. Getting a couple of top 3 finishes at those weekly races gave me confidence for the two-day crit event.

Friday before the race, the skies opened up and it rained for most of the night and onto the next morning. That drove a lot of Master racers away as only four of us took the start of the 30+ Masters race. My teammate Craig took off after a couple of laps. Once he had a significant advanted over our group I attacked the remaining two riders and went onto finish second on a wet day on the bike.



Craig and I on the top two podium spots.



Next day, it was the Category 1 and 2 event which was made up of nearly 60 riders. Lost of nerves and lack of confidence kept me in the back of the field for most of the race except for one attempt to join a break that lasted for only a couple of laps.

Finished safely in the pack and avoided some last lap crashes.

The following two weekend I race a couple of criteriums, however at that point my training was completely focused on preparing for the Whiskey Off Road 50 which had a $20000.00 purse and was attracting high caliber riders from all over.

One of those training crits was the Old Pueblo Grand Prix which also had a nice $10000.00 purse on a sold out Pro,1,2 event made out of 100 riders.

Racing at speeds of 30-35 MPH around the a twisty, pot-filled, manhole infested course in downtown Tucson wasn't my cup of tea, however I maintained contact with the main group for 90 minutes of fast and furious racing.



That's me in the caboose position trying to stay in the race



By the end, the peloton had been whittled down to about 50 riders and I finished in 31st. however I felt great about my fitness considering I had been battling a bad cold since the rainy race at the State Crit.

The other training crit was the Focus crit. in Gilbert.

That's me pulling a line of riders from what's left of the Master race after the wind and a few attacks blew the race apart.

At this one I only did the Master 30+ race and although the course was flat and windy which really didn't suit me, I managed to walk away with two prime prizes and a third place. Most importantly I felt all my preparation for the Whiskey had come together and from that point on all I had to do was rest a recover for the big event.

So that's what I've been doing for the last several weeks.

There are some major developments that I'll announce on the next post then a full recap of the Whiskey 50 once it happens.