Club Announcements and Ride Logs
The Jungle
Our Team H2V fellow rider and John Henry racer, Matthew Young, had this to say about the hardest mountain bike race in the world. We can't believe he went to Costa Rica just after racing across Canada but once again he proved he is the man!
La Ruta Race Report 2007.
Problem with race reports is most of them drag on too long having to detail every minutia at nausea. This will be succinct.
La Ruta de los Conquistadores is billed as the toughest mountain biking stage race in the world. It takes riders from the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica over through the jungle & rain forests to the Atlantic Coast in 4 days. In November of 2006, we received an email from a friend who completed the event and said it was one of the more challenging things he had done. Perfect - challenge accepted. 4 of us committed, one of us registered. Luck would have it, I would find out two acquaintances also registered for the event and two weeks prior to leaving, we would have a pretty sweet plan set up which afforded us a support team of a mechanic and his girlfriend. This undoubtedly enhanced the experience for all of us.
After traveling for 12 hours we landed in San Jose Sunday night to acclimatize for a couple of days before an early morning Wednesday start. That morning came with a 3:30am local time wake up call - breakfast - prep and then start line pandemonium.
Day 1.
- 95kms / 59 miles
- 14000 vertical ascent
- 12:30 cut off
- 30 min warm up
- 1.5 hr hike a bike (gravel)
- 2 hr on & off bike (mud)
- 3 hr cross country - swamp / mud / gravel
- 3 hr ascent to finish the day - pavement / gravel
- light rain - scolding heat - cold to temperate weather
- finished in 10:49
Notes.
- 1st event I've ever contemplated quitting - very seriously.
- border line heat exhaustion - lay down for ½ hr at a checkpoint before resuming
- noted this race ideal for small, skinny, fast fuckers
Day 2.
- 75.2kms / 46 miles
- 12000 vertical ascent
- 11 hour cut off
Particulars
Notes.
- At one point we were cycling up a 22% grade incline for 1/2k.
- There were probably 7 inclines that were too steep to ride, even pavement in small gears.
- noted this race is ideal for small, skinny, fast fuckers
Day 3.
- 66.7kms / 41.4 miles
- 8000 vertical ascent
- 11 hour cut off
Particulars
- 4hour strait climb to start the day in middle & small rings - pavement
- it was like riding Seymour mountain for 35kms at once, mixed with a little old buck and a little mud.
- 2hr decent to flat terrain
- 30 min hike through waste deep mud to finish. No.. the kind of mud where you take a step, slip and fall on your face. Did I mention waste deep.
- Finished 6:35
Notes.
- Race organizers don't need to end days with 30 minutes of hiking through waste deep mud to prove a point.
- 1 more day of this bullshit and I was going to be riding relatively flat and getting the hell out of this jungle.
- Noted this race is idea for small, skinny, fast fuckers. However, real mountain biking isn't just climbing… it's about getting down as well and the little skinny guys sucked at something (finally)
- Oh yes, by hour 2 of this day we had ascended the equivalent of MOUNT EVEREST in terms of overall feet. All in small gear / small gear.
Day 4
- 120kms / 75 miles
- 4000 vertical ascent.
- 11 hour cut off.
Particulars.
- Of course a 1 hour climb to start the day - gravel
- Cross country for 4 hours - pavement / gravel / mud
- Downhill for 40 min hour
- Monsoon rain for 1hr, high heat for an hour, cold decent as we started very high
- Cross country for 2 hours - on 10k worth of railroad tracks!
- **ever ridden a bike across the inside of railroad tracks? Actually, ever had a tiny drip of water land squarely on your forehead? Same thing.
- Moved final aid station 4kms away bcs road had washed out. Bonked accordingly and barely made it to that station.
- Finished 7:40
Notes.
- Riding across railroad tracks was one of the most annoyingly mind numbing experiences of my lifetime.
- There were times where I would be riding alone wondering if someone ambushed me, how long would it take to find out I was missing and further, would anyone find me at all?
- Finishing this race made me feel good.
- Noted this race is idea for small, skinny, fast fuckers.
Overall.
This was one of the most challenging events I have done by far, hands down, no exceptions. It's akin to doing an Ironman for 4 days in a row with the hike a bike, heat, fueling and sheer magnitude of the event. Normally we would come back and put these types of events on the list for everyone to do, but I would hesitate to advise people to run and sign up for this unless they wanted to truly test their skills and mental capability. 575 people started this race and they say 42% did not finish it. Comparatively, last years day #1, saw 50% drop out of the race. For someone was a smaller framed, light, strong rider - this would be an IDEAL experience and venue for them to perform and do well in (provided they trained properly), however for the average recreational rider, it might be a pretty significant challenge. I rode for 32 hours over 4 days, and placed 77th in my category. Of that 32 hours, I can accurately report 3 total hours were downhill, 7 were cross country, 3 were hiking my bike and 19 were riding uphill in the middle or small ring.
The overall race preparation must be spot on, meaning fuel, race plan, support teams and organization must be tight. I rode a specialized epic and ran tubeless tires and the bike ran great (thanks Willie @ John Henry's). There were people on hard tails who looked like 92 year old hunchbacks by the time they finished the ride. Do not attempt this event on a hard-tail or single speed unless you feel the need to add an element of pain to an already painful event.
Thanks to everyone who supported myself through this event from family (away again), to Fraser (support), James & Dean (fellow riders & room mates) and Willie at John Henry's for the awesome Specialized Epic Carbon hook up! Next Stop is the 100km Sahara Del Mar in March where we will run across Africa's desert for 4 days!
Get busy living… or get busy dying!
