La Ruta, 2013 edition

What is La Ruta?  Cribbed from Velonews:

What is La Ruta? A soul-sappingly hard, exotically wild, singular journey across laughably steep inclines, hysterically steeper descents, through jungles, plantations, villages, across ecosystems and temperate zones, over volcanoes and beaches and terrain that you never quite imagined you could ride on a bike.

As the locals screamed, it’s pura vida. What’s that mean? Just look around. Everything is great, and green, and growing, even if you don´t have much in your pockets, or on your bike. Regardless, you’re very alive. When you wake up in the morning, for three straight days, you get to ride your bike through rain forests and over volcanoes. That’s pura vida.

From the start on the beach in Jacó, you’ll soon learn just how alive you are, even if moments later you feel like you might die. Ever climbed a 30-percent gradient for 30 minutes? How about an hour? Try riding four miles per hour, up a slip-and-slide. Ever slithered your way down a trough of mud, your bike angled onto one side, your feet onto the other, cantilevered above a four-foot-deep crevasse of muck? Get your self to La Ruta if that sounds like being alive.

The first two hours of La Ruta will kindly introduce you to a new way of racing your bike. Your forehead alone will generate a showerhead’s worth of sweat; your brain could very well throb with the venom of unfamiliar heat; your legs may revolt and convulse as you thrash your way up a ladder of slick steps in the sludge. But scan the jungle you’re coursing through and gasp at the mysterious foliage that envelopes you. It may get dark.

The rest of the article here

That's about right.  This is a 3-day, 310 km mountain bike stage race from Pacific coast to Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

Why did I do it?  I've done all the "normal" stuff.  I've done (and continue to do) almost every discipline of cycling.  Mountain bike races, Criteriums, Cyclocross, Circuit, Road races, stage races, Battenkill-type races, time trials, triathlons, and probably a few others I'm forgetting.

I want to do more than normal, and I want to do something epic, every year.

La Ruta satisfied the criteria.  It was EPIC x2.  It was also fun, in a painful way.  

One of my attributes is that I am ok with suffering.  I don’t love to suffer, but I’m very much ok with endurance related suffering and pain that comes with it.  I may not have the strongest legs in every event, and I may not be the best technical rider, runner, or swimmer, but I can suffer with the best of them.

The 1st day of La Ruta was just painful.  There was very little fun.  The second day was the most fun because they let this be an actual MTB race with technical descents, both rocks and road.  The 3rd day was fun because my legs were for some reason had a boundless supply of energy.

To boil it down, probably 2/3 of this is a climbing competition.  About 1/3 is descending, and 1/3 is time trial.  The math might not work, but in reality, it does.

To cut to the chase,

-      My time was 17 hours, 38 minutes

-      I finished 12^th out of 180 people in the non-Federales category, which is a non-UCI cat.   Consider non-Federales to be kind of like the Open class in this competition. 

-      In 40+ UCI, my time is 8th out of 50.  

-      They also had 40 pro riders, including Todd Wells, Alex Grant, Paolo Montoya, and Marconi Duran.  My time was 23^rd if I were competing in the Pro race. 

-      I’m happy with these results, considering I had a terrible start in 1^st Stage

LINKS:
Pre-stage pics 

Stage 1 pics 

Stage 2 pics

Stage 3 pics

Full results 

Stage 1, Jaco Beach to El Rodeo, 90 km

    Starting point: Best Western Jacó Beach.
    Finish point:  Hacienda El Rodeo, San José (capital of Costa Rica).
    Distance: 110 km (aprox.)
    Elevation Gain: 12,000+ feet/3,400mts. (aprox.)
    Altitude change: 12 meters (sea level) to 650 m to 1201m to 490m to 855m
    Climate: Tropical Dry 30°C to 35°C.

LA RUTA's legendary Day 1 starts at 6:00 AM and gives competitors until 5:30 PM — 11.5 hours—to complete the 110km route before being disqualified. It won't be easy. From sea level, riders climb numerous hills that hit riders with a total elevation gain of approximately 12,000+ feet. That's why Day 1 is known by competitors as the "make it or break it day".

Expect all kinds of riding conditions this day: mud, gravel, asphalt, and loose rocks. Temperatures will be very high in the lowlands, as high as 105 degrees F and cooler in the mountains.

This was a shock to the system.  And probably the hardest thing I've ever done

The climb in the beginning was steep and brutal.  I started out fast, trying to stay with the front group, HR through the roof, and then faded a bit to ride with the 2nd 50 guys.

After the initial climb, there was an long stretch through the jungle, where you basically hike forever (or it feels like it).  There were these red slick clay eroded canyons where you have to carry the bike most of the time.  Up and downhill.   The heat was oppressive.

After the canyons of red mud, you never get a break.  Then we go into the second huge climb for another 4200 meters straight up, mostly road.  I rode with a costa rican and a columbian.  The costa rican had a chase car, and they would give him bottles and such.  They helped me a few times a s well.  The climb went on forever.  There were random markings on the road like 5km to go, but that was for something else. Neverending, and painful.  Not much fun here.

Preparedness.

The aid stations were perfectly stocked, and spaced logically.  On reflection, the right strategy would be to go as light as possible and use the aid stations. I think I was overprepared.  I wore a 100oz Camelbak.  I also packed a bunch  of bars, gels, tubes, CO2 etc.  The thing weighed a ton.

Costa Ricans. 

They are really friendly, supporting people.  They also smoke a lot of pot.  Those things could be related.

This was not a good stage for me.  7.5 hours put me about an hour behind where I thought I should be.

The finish was in Hacienda El Rodeo, about an hour from San Jose.  I dropped my bike with the mechanics, took a cold shower, got a great massage, and had some food before getting on a bus to San Jose where we stayed overnight.

LINKS:
Stage 1 pics
Garmin

La Ruta de los Conquistadores, Stage 1 from Ilya C. on Vimeo.

Stage 2, Terramall, San Jose to Catie, 80 km, two volcanos – Irazu and Terrialbo

• Starting point: Tres Ríos, Cartago.

• Finish point: Turrialba, Cartago.

• Distance: 80 km (aprox)

• Elevation Gain: About 8000+ feet / 2500+ mts (aprox)

• Altitude change: 1291m to 3025m to 607m

• Climate: 5°C-8°C expect wind and rain. Be prepared for drastic climatic changes this day, is very cold and hypothermia might be a problem.

• Terrain: Pavement 20%, volcano, rocks, and ash 20%, very steep uphills 30%, and very technical downhill 30%.

Day 2 also starts at the crack of dawn and you have until 5pm to finish. The 80 km features a fearsome climb of about 6,000 feet from Tres Ríos straight up the Irazú Volcano, with the high probability of bitterly cold weather much of the day. Starting at 1291 meters above sea level, the ride is a never-ending ascent until you reach 3025m (about 10,000 feet). Then it levels off, passes the Turrialba Volcano, and starts one of the fastest and longest downhills in Costa Rica, finishing in the town of Turrialba at an elevation of 607m (about 2,000) feet. On this day, it is very important to have well-functioning brakes and be prepared for cold weather riding. At 10,000 feet with wind and rain, hypothermia is a risk, as it can get near freezing. 

This was the most fun I had on a bike in a long time.  They gave MTBers a chance with long technical downhills on both dirt / rocks, and pavement.  There was an incredibly long climb, of course.  I finished strong, 5 hrs 09 mins. 

I did not use a camelbak, decided to go light.  That paid off, I think.  There were 4 rest stops, super-efficient helpful people. 

Potatoes and salt are insanely good.

Concept of local support:

The locals are helped by their own chase crew, who may or may not help you if are riding with them.  They follow the riders in their own cars, change bottles, pour cold water on them, give them pushes after refueling, etc.  It’s a pretty good benefit, as they don’t have to stop ever.  A neat thing they do is ice cold Coke in a like plastic baggy, you tear it open with your teeth, and it’s like heaven.  Also some kind of mystery juice, but when you’re craving ice cold liquids, you don’t care what it is. 

I had good climbing legs today, and it helped that a local guy pulled me up the hills.  Sad I had to drop him on the downhills, as he was very nice. 

It’s amazing how tentative these guys are on anything not involving climbing.  I made up a ridiculous amount of time just blasting through, having a great time. 

Evening – at a very remote Guyabo Lodge, on side of the volcano.  Very beautiful.  Buffet dinner, I sit at a table with a pro MTB rider, Alex Grant and his support staff.  Very friendly guy, so this year will be 5^th year he takes 2^nd at La Ruta.  We talked about other Epic events.  My next one (shhh don’t tell Inna) is the Cape Epic, a 7 day MTB race in South Africa.  Or maybe something in the US.  

LINKS
Stage 2 pics
Garmin 

La Ruta de los Conquistadores, Stage 2 from Ilya C. on Vimeo.