2009 La Ruta Race Report
By now you already know all the details of the first 3 days of this race, if not our Pre-Ride reports ‘look under latest news’ will tell you everything from distance to elevation gain to even the gradient of the steeper parts of the climbs. What I would like to tell you about is how the whole race unfolded from my perspective. What started 6 years ago with a dream, turned out to be a real cool story to share with all of you. Before I leave it out I would like to do a recap of the results from my first La Ruta to today: 2004 44th Place Overall, ironically that year I got the number 1 plate, 2005 21st Place Overall, 2006 13th Place Overall, 2007 11th Place overall after getting lost on day 2, 2008 5th Place Overall, 2009 1st Place, before going on with all the details I would like to thank my wife, Team Sho-Air: Scott Tedro, Ty Kady, Ben Bostrom, La Ruta de los Conquistadores, Economy Rent-a-Car, Daniel Muñiz, Alex Mendez and family, Nikki Hale, Luis Rueda, Amber Neben, Shimano USA, Specialized Bicycles, Rock N’ Road Cyclery, Carmichael Training Systems, Adam Pulford, Dynamic Touch Massage, Core Chiropractic, everybody at the local Como Street group ride, Max Taam, Lance Armstrong, Dave Jordaan, Andres Brenes, José Adrian Bonilla “Champu”, Paolo Montoya, Jeremiah Bishop, Tinker Juarez, Dax Jaikel “Gallo” and Fecoci.
Day 0
After arriving to Jaco beach in our vehicle rented from Economy Rent-a-Car, we headed down south on the paved Costanera road. My friend Alex drove the scooter and I just followed, the goal was to do some motor-pacing not too fast, but hard enough to activate the muscles and get them ready for what was to come the next day, 90 minutes total with 2 sessions of 30 minutes each at 45KPH on the flat road that goes along the coast was the perfect workout to get the legs and mind ready for tomorrow’s suffer fest. Once done with the workout we had lunch, and picked up the race bag, around 6PM we had dinner and prepared our stuff and went to bed at 8PM.
Day 1
I had set the alarm for 3am, but my iPhone’s time was still set at California local time 2 hours back, so the alarm never sounded, luckily Ben Bostrom was up and his noise was enough to wake me up. 4 pancakes and 2 good cups of Costa Rican coffee later I was ready to hit the start line. No more than 5 minutes, and we were at the first climb. luckily the pace was not super fast, for me the tempo was manageable, 2 attacks got away and 2 Spaniards got almost 2 minutes on us, but their advantage shrank as we started walking, riding and hiking on the heavy mud, just days before when we pre-rode stage one the mud areas were fairly dry and most of it was rideable, but today the mud was the worst I’ve seen in the past 6 years, this was due to the heavy rain we had during the the past 3 days. Somewhere in the middle of the Carara National Park (the muddy area) my bike got really muddy and I had to stop for about 2 minutes to dig the mud out of it, the lead group got away what they didn’t know was that the worst hike-a-bike section was to come, once there I was able to see them and by the time we were almost out of the Carara National Park I was inside the lead group again, 7 of us made it out of there but very shortly only 5 of us were left at the front of the race.
3 of the riders at the front were from Spain another from Austria and myself, the first rider to abandon the group was Roberto Heras, then it was Milton Ramos who got detached somewhere at the start of the biggest climb of the day, the ascent to Grifo Alto, this climb is all paved and the pace was fast and furious, luckily earlier before the climb the Austrian rider Heinz Zörweg needed some chain lube and I was the first one to offer it to him, little did I know that this gesture will eventually lead to the Austrian doing most of the pace setting up this 1 hour long climb, the Masters B rider rode such hard tempo that the last Spaniard could not even hold his wheel, once I realized this I rode across the gap and started working with the Austrian who looked like did not needed much help since he was comfortable doing most of the work, we rode hard all the way to the finish and by the time we entered the last 300 meters I had the front of the race and a clear shot at the sprint finish, I was in such shock that I even forgot to raise my hands across the line. After the many congratulations I headed over and thanked the Austrian for all his hard work. The next rider came 7 minutes later, Marc Trayter from Spain was now my closest rival since Heinz the Austrian rider was part of the Masters B category and somehow I knew that tomorrow the overall positions were going to shuffle a little, I was not to worry because all I was going to do was to control the race and mark my rivals.
Day 2
Last night I slept ok, I wish I could of slept more but well we needed to be at the start line right at 6am. Legs felt good today as well, sore but good, I rode around for about 25 minutes then came to the line to get the yellow leaders jersey and the applause of all the riders, as usual the jersey did not fit and somehow it felt like it weighted a lot (not the jersey but the weight it carried), despite that I still rode at the front and rode like the race leader I now was, 5 minutes into the race and we were at the first climb of the day, the crew from Spain was all over the front as well as the Cannondale team and rather than riding a steady pace they all decided to start surging and attacking the yellow jersey wearer, I did not panic at all because I knew the climb was about 1 hour long and some sections were very steep and soon they were going to get discourage.
Near the top 3 riders were able to gap me and gain about 30-40 seconds, in that group was the riders I needed to watch Mark Trayter, Jeremiah Bishop, and the now emerging Citi-Bank/Economy Rent-a-car rider Deiber Esquivel, right then I realized that Mark had good legs and I needed to watch him today. By the time we reached the top the leading group had about 50 seconds on me, but the next section was a 20 minute downhill and I knew that my Specialized Epic was going to close this time difference, the first rider I passed was Jeremiah Bishop, then Deiber and by the Bottom I was riding next to Marc who at this point was indicating me that he could also descent well.
After some more rocky fire roads we then entered the pavement and now it was Deiber, Marc myself and Milton Ramos who was also riding a S-Works Epic, no wonder why he also closed the gap so fast. This leading group worked well together and now we were also putting time on the whole Cannondale team who to me represented a threat by the large number of talented riders they brought to represent in Costa Rica soil. Somewhere in the middle of today’s stage we rode by my hometown San Ignacio de Acosta, I told the leading rider in the pace-line at the time it was Marc that I will like to take the lead over by my hometown and he happily said oh sure go ahead Campeón! I then rode across the whole town wearing the yellow jersey and leading what is know as the toughest race in the planet, never before I have felt such pride to do this and at the same time the honor to have the opportunity to do so.
Eventually Roberto Heras made contact with the leading group and now I was starting to worry, 3 Spaniards and 2 Costa Ricans, they outnumbered us, so I quickly told my other countryman to work with me in case the spaniards were up for something. Heras rode with us for about 40 minutes and my fellow Costa Rican friend told me he wanted to shake things up to see who had what, the first one to get dropped was Heras who payed the price for the effort he made catching up, then it was Milton Ramos near the top of the climb. The 3 of us left at the front were all still riding strong so it was almost sure that it will come to a sprint finish.
Deiber Esquivel came over and asked me if I could help him get rid of the Spaniard and also if he could have the stage, he asked since he knew I was still riding strong and my eyes were on the overall rather than the individual stages, Esquivel was more than 30 minutes back after day one and to me he did not represented a threat. I then told him sure I will help you, I rather see you win and not have Marc bead us and gain any time on me, the only thing I asked was to have him help me tomorrow on the way up the Irazú Volcano, the deal was made and eventually we got rid of the Spaniard and Deiber got a good 20 second gap, Deiber took the stage and Marc and I came in second third shortly after. Now the media knew that I was looking at the overall and had a good grip on it with over 7 minutes to spare, it must of being over 30 minutes of interviews autograph signing and TV time, never before have I had the spotlight on me like this.
Day 3
Somedays on the bike are good and somedays are not so good, you wish to have this kind of bad days when training and not while racing, well today it was going to be a bad day for me. Last night I could not sleep very well and this morning I woke up with a fever, not sure what it was but I could not even eat breakfast. I was doing a good job at putting it aside and was wishing to have good legs to take me to the top of the Volcano to start the big down hill.
The pace at the start was manageable but as soon as we entered the steeper part of the climb the fireworks started, unfortunately I didn’t even bring matches today to get my fireworks fired up, in fact I think I left the fireworks home. Right then I started to feel bad and my legs were not responding, it felt like my body was trying to tell me somethin and slow me down, all I was thinking was no not today, I felt hot but wanted more clothes on me, and my drive to close the now 2 minute gap was almost gone, I then made a big effort to defend the yellow jersey, with the help of Ben Bostrom we closed the gap and gained contact with the leading group, this was after many fans were lined up on the side of the road telling me to make an effort to defend the jersey and keep the La Ruta throne in Costa Rica. The front group knew that I was not on my game today and soon they attacked again and this time they were gone for good.
One of the riders on that attacking group was Deiber Esquivel who had told me he would work for me today after yesterday’s stage handout. Right then I learned not to ever do that again, if you have the chance to win take it, you never know if you will have the chance again. This was the case for sure today, I knew that my chances of winning today were slim and in fact my worries were on not loosing the leaders jersey. Going uphill you can loose time really fast, after loosing contact with the leading group I was told “2 minutes to the lead group” I then told Ben Bostrom how bad I was feeling and told him not to leave me alone till we crossed the line, never before had I seeing someone help me at a race this much, Ben towed me all the way to the top when I felt a little better at times I would tell him to shift one gear and bring the pace up, but shortly my strength will be gone again and all I could do was to ride a medium tempo up the 2:08 minute climb. By the top Marc Trayter was the virtual leader of the 2009 La Ruta race with 8 minutes on me, remember that I had only 7 on him, but we still had another 2 hours to go to the finish, I then stopped at the top to grab my Specialized Deflect Jacket and also open the Brain Valves on both my shocks for a better ride down the gnarly rocky Irazú and Turrialba Volcanoes, at first I was very aggressive down the hill and knew that I was gaining time back on the lead group, later on I found out that the leading rider who had initiated the attack was Deiber and now he had a good 3-4 minute advantage on the chasing group containing the whole Cannondale team and the virtual leader Marc Trayter.
Many rocks and mud later I was starting to get mad because I knew I was going to loose the race today. I then started to ride stupid fast taking way to much risk even putting my life in danger, this was product of me loosing my cool due to all the suffering on today’s climb, I felt so emotionally moved that I wanted to stop on the side of the road and cry. Eventually I gained my cool and rode a bid smarter, Ben Bostrom was having a phenomenal day descending and by the time we were done with the rough part he was once again pulling me closer to the finish of this never ending torturous day. Just about 18k to go we saw Marc Trayter on the side of the trail repairing a flat tire, I then got very happy not to see him get a mechanical but to know that I would keep my lead and also by knowing that the rest of the front group was not far in front of us. By the time we cross the line Deiber Esquivel had won the stage and the Cannondale team had cross the line just about 2 minutes ahead of us. What a day, I was so exhausted cold wet tired but now relieved to know that I was still in yellow, now just one more day and I would have it in the bag.
Day 4
Today’s stage started yesterday after I got off the bike, after the press interviews we quickly headed back to the hotel room, got all cleaned up had lunch and slept for 2 hours, after that I woke up to fix our bikes, Ben’s and my bike needed new brake pads and a quick tune up, after I got done fixing the bikes I went back to bed to get more rest. Shortly it was dinner time right at 6pm then soon after I went to bed.
In the morning I woke up feeling better and knew right away that today I would have the legs to defend my lead and hopefully win the 17th edition of the La Ruta de los Conquistadores, but as with anything else in life nothing good comes easy, this time the surprise was the rain that started last night and will stay with us all day long. At the start line everybody looked tired and also cold, luckily once we got going I warmed up and my legs were responding real well today. Many attacks were made primarily by the Cannondale team, by the time we got to aid station one the group was about 8-10 riders, but only 2-3 were doing actual work. Shortly after Juan Igacio Mendez a local Costa Rica rider took off on one of the fast rocky descents, I was second wheel and decided that he could get away as this will force the other riders to do some work and chase if they wanted to take at the very least a stage win. This worked out perfect and the chase was on full swing with about 60k to go, most riders were taking pulls and it looked like we had a descent pace line going. Then it came the famous rail road track bridge crossings some of them were more than 100meters long, this seemed to scare some of the non local riders with the exception of Ben Bostrom who looked fearless across this bridges, on some of them we would gain up to 60-90 seconds on the rest of the group, forcing them to chase after, we knew that this will eventually take its load on them so we kept doing it whenever we could.
Just about 30k to go we entered the famous swamps and this indicated me that the finish was near, once again nothing good comes easy and soon we found out that the swamps were so deep that we were forced to ride the train tracks rather, this section of the tracks is not was well maintained as the ones before and flat tires were going to be a factor in the closing kilometers of the race. I was right, 3 of the riders at the front got flat tires, I was riding smooth over the tracks with my S-Works Epic and S-Works Fast Trak 2.0 tires. Once we got out of the tracks it was a clean 12k of fire road and some pavement to what will seem like the best finish line ever, Alex Grand and I worked together in the closing minutes of the race, for him every second counted as some of the riders behind us who had flatted were loosing ground to him and with each pedal stroke he was moving up the General Classification, by the time we cross the line he had moved up to 2nd place overall while I knew I was the new La Ruta Champion.
I cannot put in words what this means to me, away from all the glory and the honor to say I won the toughest race in the world with some of the best riders on earth there is something more important, the fact that this might motivate someone to dream and work towards something out of the ordinary and when everyone tells you you can’t do it you come out and do it and prove yourself that anything is possible, I hope that the next person saying this will be YOU.
For a full picture gallery of the actual race click here
For a full recap of all the images of our pre-ride for stages 1-2-3 click here
Thanks for reading and sorry for the grammar mistakes.
Manuel Prado.
