La Ruta

Day 2 in the books. I have had little time for updates so you might want to check Monavie-cannondale.com and cyclingdirt.org for the full race scoop.

For me personally I have been having a good time despite not riding all that great. Day 1 was the hardest day I have had on the bike. Oppressive heat, over an hour of walking in ankle deep peanut butter, and as expected long climbs. I am currently not very prepared for any of the three. But for whatever reason it was kind of fun.

Today was a little cooler but the climbs were even steeper. The 1st climb of the day was 3500ft in about 3 miles. In the 22-34 I could barely turn over the gear even while weaving. Maybe only 10 guys rode the whole thing and it was concrete. My big delemia for both days has been riding alone. I am not strong enough to make the initial selection and the few Ticos that are climbing around my pace get shelled on the DH so I spend the entire stage by myself. It's not even like I am racing at times. Today was about 50km of up and down pavement, mostly up and I had no one to work with. I guess I either need to get faster or slower, non of this no man's land business.

I could write a novel about this race as each stage includes countless stories that are not normally associated with racing. No time now though as I got to be up at 3am.
Volcano tomrrow and it has been raining for the past 3 hrs, does it snow in Costa Rica at 10k feet?