La Ruta de los Conquistadores
Racing La Ruta
Dave Zeitsma / 10.11.2003
Between November 14-16th he’ll be joining riders from around the world, attempting to ride 300 miles from the Pacific to Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica. Each day he plans to send back exclusive diary reports to SleepMonsters.com and the renowned adventure sports photographer Martin Paquette of Level 9 will be traveling with him to provide the images.
To start things off here’s how Dave feels about the challenge ahead;
If I were to fess up to my biggest weakness in adventure racing it would be hill climbing on a mountain bike. So 410km of mountain biking in 3 days with more than 25,000 ft of elevation gain probably shouldn’t be on my list of “fun things to do�. But here I am packing my bags for the toughest mountain bike race in the world, La Ruta de los Conquistadores.
This is the third in a series of 3 “Toughest in the World� solo races I’m doing this year. In April it was 6 days on foot through the Moroccan desert in the Marathon des Sables, then 740 km of non-stop paddling down the Yukon River in June in the Yukon River Quest and now this, mountain biking from coast to coast in Costa Rica.
Each race has required very specific training and gear preparation making them as much a research project as a physical challenge. La Ruta has been the most perplexing of the three to prepare for. We’ve been told to expect paved roads, gravel roads, muddy trails, steep climbs, steep descents, some hike-a-bike jungle sections and even some riding on railroad tracks. We will travel through 9 different climatic zones with weather ranging from excruciatingly hot, humid and rainy to near freezing at the top of the mountains. Short of biking in snow, we pretty much need to be prepared for anything.
Getting your bike ready for a race like this is as important as getting your body ready, since you can’t cross the finish unless both are still functioning. I feel like I have spent as much time experimenting with different tires and chain lubes as I have doing hill repeats.
My progress on both fronts has been good despite some geographical limitations. Bike stores in Canada are a bit short on variety in October and the longest hill I can find in my training area is about 1 km (there is a 40 km long climb in La Ruta). It has not been easy to simulate race conditions and I suppose I won’t really know how well I’ve done until Friday when I line up with the other 400+ riders for the start of Day 1. Then again, if it was easy I suppose I wouldn’t be going!
SleepMonsters
