La Ruta de los Conquistadores
Stage 3 · The Volcano
Cory Wallace / 13.11.2009
The climb today was long but easier than the climbs of the first two days thanks to the easier slope and cooler temps. After trying to stick with the leaders I soon found myself in no mans land and would spend the 90% of the day riding alone without a rider in sight. I am still amazed at how this can happend in a race with 245 racers. I did have company briefly today as Roberto Heras was suffering from stomach illness and would drop off the lead group. Pretty sweet I thought getting to ride with Hoydahl, Bishop and Heras all in the same race. Only in La Ruta would this happen.
The decent down the back side of Volcan Irazu is legendary. The rocky off camber decent points the riders straight down onto the Carribean plains. Toss in hundreds of random cows, stray dogs and the odd vehicle and you have a desent you could write a book about.
Rune Hoydahl who came from his snowbound country of Norway has been cursing his friends for buying him an entry for the race without giving him time to train properly for it. Things changed for the better today for him when he crested Volcan Irazu and he began putting his World Cup winning downhill skills to work. Apparantly 15 or 20 riders reported seeing a flash on the decent and quickly found themselves down a place in the overall standings. Hoydahl´s effort today closely matched that of Roddi Lega´s back in 2005 when he went from 19th down to 5th on the same decent.
Costa Rican rider Deiber Esquival took his second straight stage win today as he caught the leading duo of Bishop and Tinker on the epic decent. Trailing by just under a minute heading into the town of Turrialba, 9 km from the finish Bishop and Tinker took a few wrong turns and lost around 10 minutes before finally riding in 2, 3. Race leader Manual Prado stayed with his closest rival in GC, Marc Traitor and protected his seven minute lead going into the final stage. This yrs La Ruta is wide open with the top 20 riders swapping places everyday. It will be interesting to watch the race fold out on the flatter roads of day 4 as the race will wind its way 120km down to the Carribean Beaches.
At this point in the 4 day stage race many riders are starting to get fatigued and are dropping out of competitor mode and into survivor mode. I figure La Ruta would make a great TV series as there is more action, drama and comedy then most the gongshows on tv.
Watching the race unfold from just behind the leaders is pretty cool as each day there are different riders dropping back to me. It seems everyone here has there good days and bad days as La Ruta is probably one of the most complex races around with endless uncontrallable variables. This makes the race the great adventure that it is yet it is also very prestigous as this race seems to be life and death for some Tico´s.
Talking to Jeremiah Bishop today after the race I asked him how he felt about sitting 5th overall well behind leader Prado, even though he has shown to have possibly the best fitness at the race. "Its La Ruta, I knew I was coming to an uncontrollable environment and my goal was to stay under control no matter what). After a mechanical day 1, getting lost and nearly getting run off the road on day 2 and then getting lost again briefly today while fighting for the lead Bishop is showing solid composure as he has been eyeing a win here for a while.
Although the course has been marked well, many riders have found themselves off course as there are numerous intersections and if you blink theres a chance of missing a marker. With rainy conditions and a thick fog coming down the volcano today a few riders found themselves off course for a bit. From my expereiences paying attention to find the route each day is one of the bigger challanges of any multiday, cross country bike race.
With one day to go riders are shopping around for swimming shorts and calling in sick to there jobs around the globe as a few days of R&R on Costa Rican beaches are a necessity after this ends on Bonita Beach tommorow afternoon.
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