THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
La Ruta marks 15th birthday by toughening up
Costa Rica’s most prestigious international sporting event, La Ruta de los Conquistadores, celebrates its 15th birthday on Wednesday. To mark the milestone, organizers have added a fourth stage to the famously grueling mountain-bike race, which again traces a winding route from the Pacific to Caribbean coasts. The extra day has added significant clout to the race’s already-mind-numbing stats:
2006
Distance: 176.4 miles Climbing: 28,858 feet Maximum finishing time: 35 hours
2007
Distance: 225 miles Climbing: More than 40,000 feet Maximum finishing time: 45.5 hours
“I’m pretty nervous — there’s definitely a real edge to La Ruta with the heat and the mud and the climbing,” said Trek-Volkswagen pro Susan Haywood, who is competing in her first La Ruta. “Stage races are really cool, and there are none in the States. It definitely beats riding around in a circle for an hour.”
The additional stage comes on the second day. The 46-mile leg begins at the horse ranch at El Rodeo, skirts the capital city of San Jose and finishes in Terramall on the eastern edge of the capital. The stage fills in a gap that formerly existed in the race’s journey from coast to coast.
“This is the first year you truly cross Costa Rica,” said race director Diego Viquez. “Every place you finish, you will start the next day.”
To ease the suffering, organizers have reworked La Ruta’s infamous first stage, the 59-mile trek from the beach town of Jaco to El Rodeo that boasts nearly 15,000 feet of elevation gain. In 2006 nearly half of the route was covered in thick mud, forcing riders to push or carry their bikes. Only 244 of the 483 starters crossed the line ahead of the first day’s cutoff time.
“We’re leaving from the same place, but we are taking the route from 2005 instead,” said Luis Rueda, the race’s spokesman. “It is a paved and gravel route, not mud.”
Indeed, much like British Columbia’s TransRockies Challenge, South Africa’s Absa Cape Epic and Switzerland’s Trans Alp races, La Ruta brands itself as the ultimate physical challenge for mountain-bike racers. Race organizers offer would-be riders a formal warning on their website:
La Ruta is not a race for whiners, posers or delicate persons. It is not a ride in the park. The grades are steep, the climate can be extreme. You must be a true adventure lover and a great athlete to enjoy this event.
The warning undoubtedly helped attract the 520 adventure lovers who signed up for this year’s race. The 2007 edition of La Ruta sold out its final spot in early October, and boasts its biggest-ever field.
Haywood heads a small contingent of North American pros heading to the race. In 2006 cross-country pros Jeremiah Bishop and Adam Craig raced La Ruta; however, with the 2008 Olympics looming on the horizon, neither will be back for 2007. In their place is American cross-country legend Tinker Juarez (Cannondale), the reigning solo 24-hour world champion, who finished La Ruta sixth overall last year. Three-time La Ruta women’s champ Louise Kobin (Sho-Air), an endurance specialist from San Jose, California, will also take the line.
Canadians Kris Sneddon (Kona-Les Gets), Max Plaxton and Andreas Hestler (both Rocky Mountain-Haywood) will also make the journey. Hestler has one La Ruta finish under his belt, and in 2006 he finished 18th overall. Plaxton, a hopeful for Canada’s Olympic squad in 2008, is a La Ruta novice. Noticeably absent from this year’s La Ruta are the champions from 2006 and 2005, Columbian Leonardo Paez and Swiss mountain-bike icon Thomas Frischknecht. Paez, who finished fifth at the 2006 world mountain-bike championships, is still recovering from a mid-season crash that ended his 2007 campaign. Frischknecht, who became the first non-Tico to win the race in 2005, is recovering from a knee injury.
A strong European contingent will fill the void left by the missing Frischknecht. German Thomas Zahnd and Swiss Sandro Spaeth (Texner-Stoeckli) are making the journey for their first La Ruta. The duo grabbed the final stage of South Africa’s 2007 Absa Cape Epic, and finished fifth overall in that race.
“Before Frischy won La Ruta the race was almost unknown in Switzerland,” Spaeth told VeloNews. “The mountain-bike community is now taking notice. And if there are strong Swiss riders [there], then the interest is high.”
The heaviest hitter making the journey from Europe is French marathoner Thomas Dietsch (Bianchi). The Frenchman is coming off his most successful season to date, winning the UCI marathon cross-country World Cup title and finishing third at the 2007 UCI marathon world championships on August 12.
“I would really like to finish my season with a victory at La Ruta,” Dietsch said.
Challenging the foreign riders for a share of the $14,500 in prize money is a strong contingent of Costa Rican talent like Federico Ramirez, Deiber Esquivel and Marco Antonio Pohlond.
The 2007 La Ruta de los Conquistadores begins Wednesday and runs through Saturday, November 17. Stay tuned to VeloNews.com for news and updates from the race.
