We are off to on Stage 3 today, and are loving every bit of this race so far. Chris Carmichael and I are having a great time racing together, and have definitely been suffering! Day 1 ended up great with Chris and I placing 1st in the 80+ mixed category, and 5th overall in the mixed teams. Stage 2 was a bit rainy and sloppy, and thankfully was a bit shorter than all the other days, at only 50K. You can check out my Garmin Connect page for a view of the ride.

There is good race coverage on the following site for everyone to enjoy:

Trans Andes Website

A great blog by Jason Sager on Cyclingnews.com

I have also added quite few photos to my Facebook page and to my Flickr account so check them out! We are off on Stage 3 today, and I’ll check back in as soon as I get some quality internet time.

Stage 3: Distance 72 kilometers. Total Climb 2496 meters. Feed Zone 1 Km 26. Feed Zone 2 Km 49.

La Ruta: Pre-Race 

J. Andres Varga

La Ruta Ready

Day 0 and the race wheels are rolling.  We start tomorrow at 5:20 AM.  Today is the last minute bike prep and registration.  My Specialized teammate Todd Wells has arrived, along with team mechanic, Benno Williet.  It will be really fun to have Todd and his wife Meg out here. The last time we all spent time together was at Leadville when we took home double wins.  Maybe if we’re lucky, we can do that again.  Benno is a world class mechanic and has been with Specialized for years.  The last time he worked on my bike was the Cape Epic a few years ago and I’ve always been super impressed with his meticulous work and ability to tell jokes at the same time.  Both those traits will come in really handy on a race as long and hard as this.  The bikes will get beat up from the infamous Costa Rican mud and rain.

I’ve been here a few days doing some heat acclimatization and my last tune up rides.  The humidity is crazy and the sweat just pores off my nose and chin.  Its quite different from the dry mountain air in Idaho.  My last few rides out here have felt really good.  I usually don’t say that before a race for fear of jinxing myself.  However, I feed excited and anxious to start this thing.  That is usually a good sign for me.  This is my third time racing La Ruta and every year I learn more.  It is the type of event that takes experience, the right frame of mind, course knowledge and a bit of luck to do well.  The course had it’s way with me the first time I raced it and I swore I’d never come back.  It took a few years, but I broke my promise and returned in 2010 with a new attitude and had a great time.  I now feel like I understand what it takes to do well here and decided to come back again and try to improve my result.
This is also a perfectly timed event for me to head into the winter with some miles in the legs.

I just read through my CyclingNews Blogs from 2010 and it was a great reminder of what’s in store for me.  Day 1 is the really hard day.  They are all hard, but the first day seems to make or break people.  It’s probably the longest in time and has a huge amount of climbing, including hours of walking uphill through the Costa Rican jungle mud.

This race always draws a really strong field for both men and women.  I don’t really know who all the players are in the women’s field.  I know for sure that multiple winner  “La Ruta Lou”, Louise Kobin is here.  She’s actually a good friend and has won this race more than any other female.
She is a great competitor and will be super strong as always.  However, as with Leadville this year, I know I need to ride my own race and see where the chips fall.  I do best when I stick with my own strategy and pacing, so that’s the plan again this year.

Race Day 1

Day 1 of La Ruta is in the books.  I had a great day and it felt so good to be racing and working hard again.

I’ve sort of had a couple months of really unstructured training, so I had no idea if my legs would remember how to race. I was pleasantly surprised with how I felt today on what they call the hardest day of La Ruta.  There was over 10,000 ft of climbing in about 110 km.  The jungle hike a bike portion is a bit of a slip and slide event, but it went OK.  I was running cyclocross toe cleats in my shoes and was glad to have them today to claw my way up some of the muddy ruts.  I finished today in 2nd for the women, about 10 minutes of the lead.  I’m encouraged by my ride today because I felt good, was climbing well and my time this year was well ahead of where I was last year.  I was also really encourage to not have Louise Kobin (aka La Ruta Lou) ride away from me today like she has in the past.  It was motivating to be able to chase and I caught and passed quite a few people in the 2nd half of the day.  I rode alone for much of the day, and basically did a 7:16 hr time trial.  I made a point of really trying to stay race focused the whole time and push myself even though there weren’t people around me.  This race takes a hard toll on bikes as well as the racers.  It is 6:45 PM and some of the racers are still coming in after more than 12 hours on the course.  My Specialized teammate Todd Wells threw down today and won the stage and has a 10 minute lead.  It’s so great to have him here and also our team mechanic Benno.  I had a pedal that seized up1/2 way through the stage and a shift lever that was damaged from a crash today.  I felt lucky to make it into the finish with my bike pretty intact and now Benno is basically rebuilding everything on both our bikes for tomorrow’s stage.  I’m riding the Fate this year and I can already tell that the 29 wheels are ripping on the road sections and this bike is so light that it loves to climb.  That’s a good thing because tomorrow is another 10,000 ft of climbing and somewhere around 80 km.

You can follow along with live updates from the Lead Adventure Media Facebook Page as well as the race website.

There is a great photo gallery that shows how difficult Stage 1 was on CyclingNews.com.

I’ll do my best to keep the updates coming, but it all depends on how I feel and if we get internet connection at the next hotels.

Race Day 2: Mud-Surfing & Hill Climbing

I’m in the hotel room after day 2 with ice bags on my legs.  There’s no bath tub here, so I can’t take a full ice bath.
It was a really tough day with about 45 miles of riding and 11,000 ft of climbing.  The climbs were so steep that some of them were unrideable.
I guess it’s typical Costa Rican style of power climbing.  The 6 am starts with no warm up are a bit rough because every day shoots straight up out of the host town and there’s no time to get the legs ready for the sort of punishment the day is going to unleash.  I was climbing for about a while with the women’s leader Adrianna Rojas.  She got away from me one of the many steep climbs.  I have a feeling she is more used to this style of riding than I am.  The mountains in Idaho are just so different.  Instead of sharp, 30% grades that blast your lungs and legs, I’m used to more steady, long climbs.  Once Adrianna got away, Louise Kobin and I rode about the first 1/2 of the race together.  It was really motivating to be riding with her and pushing each other.  She is a super consistent racer and knows this course better than anyone out there.  It definitely helped keep my head in the game.  I got away from Louise at about 45 km, which is when I started to feel like I was warming up and could put more pressure on the pedals.  We were told the stage was 63 km, but it actually ended up being 74.  Nothing like thinking you have 1 or 2 km to go and it’s really more like 8 or 9! I kept my head down on the rollers and tried to let the 29 Fate do it’s work on the open roads.  That bike is so fast descending and on the flats.  I had a few close calls on some of the muddy, sliding descents, but managed to stay upright.  It’s like surfing and I’ve never been good at surfing.

The women’s finishing places were the same as yesterday with Adrianna 1st, me in 2nd and Louise in 3rd.  Adrianna now has about 16 minutes on me in the general classification. It’s a hefty gap, but this is the sort of race where you and your bike need to make it through all four days.
Tomorrow is the big climb up the volcano.   There are some really steep parts at the beginning, but most of the climb is a steady paved road where you can settle into a smooth pace.  At the top, you head down for about 40 km.  It sounds amazing, but the descent is really technical and tiring.
My plan is to put the work in on the hill and stay safe on the descent.

My Specialized teammate, Todd Wells, was 4th today after flatting and damaging his rim.  Luckily he made it into the finish with his bike intact and still holds onto his general classification lead by about 7 minutes.
Remember to check out Velonews.com and Cyclingnews.com for photos and videos of each day.

Race Days 3 & 4: Lost & Found

The La Ruta is in the history books, and I am fully reminded of how difficult this race truly is. It is such a fun experience though to come race literally from one side of the country to the other, and have the support of a international crowd along the way. Despite the bad luck on day 4, this was still my best La Ruta finish to date and my riding performance was better than expected given that I didn’t really train or focus on peaking for this race.

Day 3 at La Ruta was OK.  Not great but not terrible.  I felt OK, but just wasn’t climbing as fast as I would have liked.  I fell off the pace right from the beginning.  I did get to ride with Matt Luhn, a friend from Sun Valley for the last part of the climb and the descent.  It was really nice not to be alone out there.  The 8000 ft descent was super sketchy because the fog and light rain had moved in.  It was impossible to wear glasses because they were fogging up so badly, so the descent was sort of a one eyed squint alternating eyes depending on which one had mud in it.  I was grateful for my bike and body to make it down the descent intact. There is huge consequence on this day to flat, crash and really mess yourself up.

Found out I broke my saddle on Stage 3, luckily I made it to the finish and I had no idea.  Benno had a replacement for me so the bike was all set again.
I also checked my time from last year and was like 17 min faster this year than last year, so I’m happy with that, especially since the descent was in the rain this year.

Stage 5 of La Ruta is underway, racing from Costa Rica to Idaho.  After finishing the race, it was a 3 hr bus ride, packing my bike and gear, 4 hrs of sleep and another 4 AM wake up call to get to the airport in time.  I’m a bit beaten and exhausted from 4 days of super hard riding and now the 5th day of hard travel before getting to Idaho tonight at 11 pm.

The last stage of La Ruta was a bit of a cluster.   It is the longest stage at 120 km with all of the climbing in the first 40 km.  The remaining 80 km is mostly flat with railroad bridges, lots of small towns, and fast roads.  It pays to be with a group for the 2nd half of the stage.  I started out feeling OK and after a couple of hours of super hot, hard climbing topped out with Louise and Adam from Carmichael Training.  We formed a great posse and were moving really well on the descents and flats.  We picked up some other riders including a guy from Scotland and some Costa Ricans.  We had a great group of about 8 of us all working together and flying through the kilometers.

My finishing time on this stage last year was 5:30 and although I knew it was unlikely I could catch Adrianna to take the overall win, I was really gunning for a stage win and to improve on my time from last year.  I’ve been riding well this week and have been much faster than last year.  I’ve had a clean race with no mechanicals or big crashes, so I’ve been happy with my performance.  A race like La Ruta takes great fitness, but also a good deal of luck.

Stage 4 was apparently where my luck ran out.  Somewhere between kilometer 60 and 80, our group got off course.  We had been speeding along in a pace line and there are multiple turns through small towns and the markings in this race are sometimes less than obvious.  After quite a while of not seeing any markings, the group realized that we were off course.  We started stopping people on the streets and asking if bikes had gone this way by pointing and gesturing.  We stopped multiple people on bikes, in cars, in their homes to try to get back on track.  Luckily, Martin from Scotland had some money with him so since the whole group was out of water, he bought drinks and we continued on our adventure through the back roads of Costa Rica.  The temperatures were soaring near 100 and my mood was pretty deflated.  I also started to get worried that we’d actually get disqualified for going off course, even though we were clearly doing more mileage than prescribed.  After a 22 km detour and multiple sides of a square, we joined the course again at the 80 km check point.  At this point, we’d ridden 102.  We still had nearly 40 km more to go.

I was grateful that we had a group while we were lost and that Louise was with me.  She’s done La Ruta 8 or 9 times and knows this course as well as anyone.  We both agreed to stick together and finish the stage together.  We had no idea how much time we’d lost or if our detour was going to change our placing in the general classification.  The last 40 km were mentally hard since we should have been done at that point.  We started moving through the back of the pack of racers.  Shortly after we joined back onto the course, a car had stopped about 30 racers in the middle of the road.  We came up on them to find out that an athlete ahead had been held up at gunpoint and robbed of his bike.  They grouped us together to ride through that section as a group.  After our crazy detour, this was just another thing to add to the chaos of the stage.

Louise, Adam and I finally rolled into Limon into the finish in a time of 6:05.  The winning women’s time was just over 5 hours.  With our detour, running out of water and the mental blow of being lost, we were just an hour off the lead.  It’s frustrating to know that we would have had a strong shot at winning the stage, but luck was not on our side.  I do know that my time would have been faster than last years if we had not gotten lost.  Our time was still fast enough to keep our overall placings of 2nd and 3rd.

Overall, it was a good week for me.  I loved being able to ride with Louise and the Carmichael Training Group and have some friends out on course.  I also spent a portion of day 3 riding with my friend Matt from Idaho.  I owe Martin from Scotland for saving us on day 4 with the Cokes he bought and shared.
I also want to thank Benno from Specialized for keeping the Fate running perfectly. The bike was amazing and having one bike survive this adventure with no mechanicals is a great feat.  Congratulations to Todd Wells who had a stellar race and proved the doubters wrong that a gringo couldn’t come in and win La Ruta in his first year. There is a great race report and photo gallery on Cyclingnews.com as well to check out.

Our ride is 6 days from SLC to Vegas.  Tomorrow, Day 1 we will be covering 113 miles from SLC to Nephi.  It has been a while since I’ve put in long miles on my road bike, so this will be a change and a great training week.  It’ll make standing indoors in Vegas for 3 days way more bearable.
Thanks to Specialized for the invitation.  Thanks also to Red Bull, Beyond Coastal, Skins, and Hammer Nutrition for providing supplies to keep us all going for 6 days in a row.

Todd Meier Photography

As soon as I won the Leadville 100 race last year, I was already getting questions about racing in 2011 and coming back to defend my title and attempt the first ever women’s “threepeat” at this race. I remember saying last year, “can’t I just enjoy this win for a little while before having to focus on 2011?”  Well, the break didn’t last long and my coach and I targeted the Leadville 100 race as my “A” race for 2011 and the training and focus for that began almost a year before the actual event.

Heading into Leadville this year, I had some highs and lows in the season.  I knew my training had been better than ever, but my results weren’t necessarily showing the fitness I’d been building.  A few weeks out from Leadville, I had one of my worst races of the season and suffered some serious doubts.  I trust in my coach and the work I’ve done, but could not figure out why I was so flat so close to my key race.

I stuck to my plan to head to Colorado a couple of weeks early for one last race and then some much needed quite time without distraction. I have had a season full of amazing women’s events, sponsor appearances, movie screenings all piled on top of trying to maintain laser focus with my training.  I had some doubts that perhaps I had spread myself too thin and it was now catching up to me.

Todd Meier Photography

The two weeks of isolation prior to the race proved to be just the focused recovery and rejuvenation that I needed.  I slept a ton, trained at altitude, ate really well, tinkered with my bike and just decompressed.  I was strangely calm before the race, despite the fact that the women’s field was incredibly strong and hungry to take me down.  I wasn’t really nervous and my mental energy was focused not on my competitors, but more on bettering my own time from last year.  I knew that if I went faster than I had before, I would have to feel good about that regardless of my placing.  Winning is addictive, but it’s also not the only definition of success.

People kept asking me how I felt about the stout competition.  Without hesitation, my response is a positive one.  The fact that both men’s and women’s fields were much deeper with pro riders is always a good thing for endurance racing, for the event, for everyone.  It means the sport is growing and more top athletes are lining up.  It adds credibility to the event and keeps it exciting.  If you knew who was going to win a race every time, it wouldn’t be that stimulating to watch.

Todd Meier Photography

Race day was clear and warm.  I lined up with Specialized teammate, Todd Wells on the front line.  My boyfriend, Greg, was once again there to be my one man crew.  I looked around at my friends Gretchen Reeves, Jenny Smith, Kelli Emmett and gave them all a smile.  I had a race strategy in my head and knew these girls were gunning for me, but they are all friends and I honestly wished them all a safe and good race.   As we rolled into the very first climb at St. Kevin’s I was feeling OK, but could not really respond as four women slowly rode away from me.  I wasn’t panicked and just put my head down and tried to remind myself that I had lots of time and to stick to my strategy.  I was sitting in 5th place and a few minutes off the lead as I rolled into the first aid station at mile 30.  Greg was there and asked me how I was doing.  He could see in my eyes that I wasn’t as spunky as usual.  I told him I was fine, but just a little flat.  By the time I reached the 2nd aid station, I got reports that I was just 2 minutes off the leaders and sitting in 3rd going into the Columbine Mine climb.  Apparently both Kelli and Pua had mechanicals and had dropped back, but I never saw them.  The news that I was that close to the lead got me amped and some of my confidence started to come back.

I went to work to chip away the deficit on the climb.  I was catching other guys, so I knew I was moving the bike better by now.  The male racers were telling me that Jenny and Gretchen were just ahead.  I finally caught both of them right where the climb really kicks up and gets super hard.  I passed Gretchen, but Jenny stuck to me like a terrier for the remainder of the climb.  She was right on my tail at the turn around.  I was able to shake her on the descent and then got really focused on not crashing, not flatting and taking care of my fueling.  I had the lead, but not by much.  It was mine to keep if I didn’t make any mistakes at all.

Coming down Columbine and hearing all the uphill riders scream my name gave me a huge boost of energy.  Rolling into Twin Lakes aid station with thousands of crew members all screaming gave me another second wind.  I was past the 1/2 way mark and time to finish the job.  I made it to Powerline climb and still could not see any female riders behind me.  I had gotten a split of around 3 minutes at the Pipeline aid station, but that was dangerously close.  I was cramping and at my limit.  I ended up walking the lower section of the Powerline climb for fear of pushing my cramps into full blown spasm.  I slammed a Red Bull energy shot and walked/ran hoping that it wasn’t a mistake to be conservative in this spot.  Back on the bike, I finished the huge climb and focused on the last 15 miles ahead of me.  These are mentally the most challenging miles.  Town feels so near, but is still so far.

Todd Meier Photography

I was focusing on nutrition and being very light on the descents.  A flat tire at this point would have really been a game changer.  Once off the last descent and onto the flats before town, I relaxed about flat tires and stole a look at my watch.  It read 7:10 and I knew I was only about 20 minutes out from the finish.  I couldn’t believe the time I was seeing on my Suunto.  I was blown away that I was this far ahead of my own course record.  I knew the other girls must still be nipping at my heels, but this was the first point I actually thought that I might have it in the bag.  Always a realist, I still kept my head down and snuck looks behind me when I had a stretch of visibility.  I did not relax until I turned onto 6th street and could physically see the red carpet and the famous finish line.  That view rolling into town is like looking down the Champs Elysee for mountain bikers.  Instead of seeing the Arc de Triomphe, you see the historical old brick buildings on Harrison Blvd that mark your ultimate destination.

I have visualized that finish in my head for more than a year.  I admit, I was not certain that I would be the first woman to roll across it and never dreamed I’d break my own record by over 15 minutes.  Even during the race, I felt a little flat and off the back for a while.  Perseverance, race experience and staying calm paid off.  This third win was all the more sweet because I really had to work for it.  Not only did I break my own course record, but so did the top four women in the race!  Now that is the true definition of success for women’s cycling!

A big shout out to Todd Wells for his win as well.  Specialized and SRAM had an awesome day on the top of the podium.  Thanks to both for the incredible support and tech work for the race.  My brand new Fate remains undefeated and was the perfect bike for this course.

Most of all, thanks to Greg Martin for being my training partner, my motivator, my crew, my voice of reason and the best musette bag handler ever!

For more photos of the whole Leadville race experience, click here and dont forget to “Like”

For a great video of the women’s race finish, click here.

I’ve had the pleasure of catching up with my good friends Donna and Charles.  Charles has crewed for all of my 24 Hour World Championship races and I’ve known them both since my days of living in Chicago in the 1990′s.  Charles has been nice enough to escort me around some of the best single track in the Phoenix area.  Over the last couple of days, he’s been able to accommodate my specific training plan and show me two new places to ride.  Day 1, the prescribed workout was “3 hrs with lots of sub threshold climbing.”  Charles took me over to the McDowell Mountains and put together a ride around Lost Dog and over Wingate Pass.  It was exactly what the coach ordered and a stout introduction to the plethora of rocks that characterize Arizona riding.  I chose to bring my 29er Stumpy HT to this race to get it dialed in for Morocco.  I have to say that AZ terrain is 29er territory.  There are so many embedded rocks to ride over that the big wheels seem necessary for me to keep rolling.  There are step ups, step downs, loose baby heads and cactus galore.  It’s usually easier to go over the rocks than to try to go around them and risk brushing a cactus.  The ride in the McDowells was sweet and I was feeling more and more confident handling the bike after a winter on skis.  I guess I got a little cocky though and about 30 minutes from the finish, I lost my focus and a small embedded rock in the trail sent me super manning over the bars.  I caught the brunt of my fall on the meaty part of my right hand.  Thankfully, I landed in the rocks instead of the cactus.  However, I really hurt my hand.  I was unable to shift, brake or put any pressure on my right palm.  The last part of the trail was still technical and jarring and trying to ride with one hand while wincing in pain was not a ton of fun.  The Queen of Pain was really in pain and thoughts of not being able to race on the weekend were rolling around in my head.  I’ve been lucky and suffered very few injuries over the years.  This one seemed like a small thing, but super painful and an essential body part for riding.  That night, I did a big epsom salt soak, iced my hand a bunch, took advil and rubbed arnica onto my swollen hand.  The bruising was coming up, but it was not broken.

Day 2, I did a little test ride around the neighborhood and my hand felt remarkably better than the night before, so we loaded the car and headed out for training.  My work for this day was 3 hrs of riding with 2 x 30 minute race pace efforts thrown in.  Charles took me to the Pickett Post area of the Arizona Trail, which goes all the way from Utah to Mexico.  It was a littler higher elevation than Phoenix, so the desert was in full bloom.  The scenery was so amazing that it was hard to focus on staying on the tight single track.  This trail was so sweet.  100% single track with some great technical terrain, but not so technical to get frustrating.  Doing the race pace efforts on challenging trail was such good practice for me in looking further ahead, staying off the brakes and letting the momentum of the bike carry me.  I did a few little practice sessions on one stretch of trail until I cleaned it.  I managed to stay on the bike and forgot about my hand.  It’s still purple, but is recovering really nicely.  The only injuries sustained on this trail were getting a bit to up close and personal with the Cat Claw thorns hanging into the trail.  I was thankful to have my Specialized solar arm covers to keep the scratches off my forearms, but my shins took the brunt of  the scratches and I did look like I’d had a fight with a cat after the ride.  It has been really nice to have a personal mountain bike guide while I’ve been here.  There is no way I would have found these sweet trails without a devoted local rider like Charles.

Here are a few pics from the training days in AZ.

My new god dog.

Cat claw plants get the best of my shins!

It was an awesome training week and felt great to be spinning the pedals in the sun. We are both fresh off skiing and a little bit of indoor riding, but that’s about it. Early season is always so demoralizing because you are building fitness again and trying not to be impatient with results or performances. The only way for me to get hard race intensity is to race. I cannot generate the same kind of psyche on my own. I need a start line and a bunch of other people to motivate me to push extra hard.

Looks Like Idaho

The Tour de la Patagonia is a race full of mostly Argentine and Chilean riders, but there were also a few teams from Ecuador, Brazil and Uruguay. I think we were the only Gringos in the race. I did this race last year, so I knew what to expect and have some friends in San Martin de los Andes who take me under their wing. It’s so much easier to travel to a foreign country where you have a local contact for good places to eat, the best shops, the best rides and other logistics. I am hoping one day my Argentine family here will come to Idaho and I can return the favor and show them my home.

"Hugito" Our mechaninc

The terrain here is really similar to Idaho, so Greg and I felt right at home. The big differences are eating dinner at 10 PM, having tons of beef every day and drinking mate (pronounced: mahtay) like a drug. The race officials also seemed to struggle with Greg’s name since his first name “Greg” is not common, but his last name “Martin” is like Bob in the US. So when they announced our names for the podium, it was RRRRRRRRRebecca and Marteeeeeen, complete with a thick Latin American accent!

Full Service Race Massage

The race unfolded nicely. I was sick going into the event and was nervous about my performance. I definitely wasn’t 100%, but started feeling better each day. The flats and descents were OK for me, but as soon as we hit the climbs, I felt super weak and powerless. Greg was an awesome teammate letting me sit in behind him in the wind and helping me up some of the hills when possible. Team racing is so rewarding when you work well together and can give each other strength and motivation.

The top 4 teams from day 2. Greg and I were stoked to finish 4th overall this day right behind the 3rd place men's team.

Since we knew I was going to be weaker than usual on the climbs, we worked hard on the single tracks and any technical riding in an attempt to get a gap on the other teams. It’s awesome to follow Greg descending because he’s so good that I can just follow his lead and not have to think. The course on day 1 had a 20 minute super high speed single track descent. We got some great video on the GoPro that day and the trees are blurred because we were going so fast. Our top speed that day was 60 km / hr! The video footage will be coming soon.

Finishing Day 2 in Puerto Fuy, Chile

We finished first in the mixed team category on all three stages and won the category, but not by a huge gap. A very young, impressive Argentine Team Pedal Life kept the pressure on us the whole way. They are both just 21 and it was Jacquelina’s first mountain bike race! They finished a total of 15 minutes behind us over three days of racing. We got about 5 minutes on them each day, but that small of a gap did not leave any room for mistakes such as crashes or flats. The best part was that they finished each day with huge smiles. I think they both have a long future in bike racing and I’m trying to convince them to compete in the 24 Hours of Argentina this year.

1 1/2 hour ferry ride to camp

Greg and I had a clean race with no mechanicals or crashes. Thanks to Hugo and Flavio at Adventure Store for keeping my new Specialized Era and Greg’s Specialized 29er HT running smoothly. Greg and I were really happy with result. In addition to winning the mixed category, we were also 5th in the overall rankings. Not bad for a chica and a Gringo

Finish Day 3 in San Martin de los Andes

After three great days of intense racing, we are spending the rest of our time here going to the beach, shopping, working on the 24 Hour race course and just taking in the relaxing vibe of this area. It feels like the first time we have taken a true vacation in a very long time! We leave tomorrow and just heard that we are returning to two feet of new snow at home.

A very rare moment of vacationing on Lago Lacar!

I guess the bikes will go back into storage and the skis will stay waxed and in use for a bit longer. For full results click here.

"Mixtos" Podium

The new First Gear Initiative has one simple mission, to get kids on bikes early in order to promote happy and healthy lives. With a target of 10,000 kids per year, Specialized is setting out to add another strong push to bring the joy of cycling to those in need. If you would like to join in the effort you can visit their website, Facebook, and spread the news via social media. They also have some pretty cool success stories from all the athletes about programs they have participated in, including one from Blaine County Recreation District!

World Bicycle Relief has been around for quite some time and is strongly supported by many companies in cycling. Any time of year, just $134 buys and donates a locally assembled bike in Zambia and provides access to education for girls and boys.   From now until Dec 31st, any donations to World Bicycle Relief will be matched!  As we sit and dream about sweet new 2011 bikes that we want to ride, consider how life changing access to wheels can be for someone who has never had a bike. You can check out their awesome new video on YouTube!

Bike Mag posted their holiday gift guide today, and I was welcomed into their world to submit what I thought were some great gift ideas. There was one catch, only one product could be from a company I am sponsored by! I would describe them more as lifestyle products, since in the winter I love backcountry skiing and relaxing in some nice clothes.

Happy Holidays

The backcountry has been incredible so far this year!

My apologies for not writing this report after Stage 4, but the clean sheets of my hotel bed were just too enticing. Waking up at 6:30 am felt like luxury after so many days of 3:30 am wake up calls.

We started our final stage of La Ruta in pouring rain. The stage profile gave us 40km of typical Costa Rica climbing, followed by 80 km of flat roads to the Caribbean. Although the profile is flat, many of the roads are rough and imbedded with rocks. There are multiple river crossings and the infamous railroad track riding and terrifying trestle bridges.

It is the sort of stage where it pays big dividends to make sure you are not alone on the flats. It is by no means an easy road day. There are some great descents and smooth pavement sections, but those are regularly interspersed with the tracks, bridges, and puddles that all require power pedaling. The riders with nothing left in their legs would be hating it.

I started the day solidly in third place in the GC and feeling a bit flat. I was a bit worried on the first 20 km of climbing because I wasn’t really turning the pedals over that well and was hoping the day would not be spent alone suffering and watching the kilometers slowly tick by.

I got a boost of motivation when I found myself with Chris Carmichael and one of his coaches, Jane Rynbrandt. We banded together and motivated each other up the final steep climb. That’s when the sky opened up and the rain really let loose for our descent. I have never seen more rain in my life. It was impossible to see and the pavement was running with water as we flew downhill.

Luckily I was surrounded by people who were good, steady riders. After the descent, the rain subsided and we organized into a well oiled peloton of four to five people. We picked up a really strong roadie from Alabama and another Gringo who was feeling strong. I was incredibly grateful to have some good wheels to follow and people who were willing to share the work. The company and camaraderie were a welcome change from so many hours of riding alone this week.

We were cruising along at 30km/hr and flying toward the finish. The railroad tracks abruptly put and end to our coordinated efforts and split up our Gringo Peloton. After the first section of tracks, it was just me and Mr. Alabama together trading pulls. The trestle bridges were scary this year. They are so high above the rivers and so long and offer huge consequence for a mis-step.

I heaved my bike onto my shoulders, took a deep breath and walked across slowly. The rain had mad the railroad ties slippery with bike cleats on. I heaved a bit sigh of relief when I was safely past the last one. I was enjoying the railroad riding sections because I felt I had some power left in my legs. My friend, Matt, who has done La Ruta seven times told me that the key to the tracks was to push a big gear and keep up as much speed as possible to smooth out the railroad ties. It seemed to work and I was pulling away from my group and passing more people.

When I reached the final aid station 20km from the finish, I could see Angela (Parra) and Louise (Kobin) turning off the tracks just about a minute ahead of me. The last 20km along the beach were an energy suck. The rains in last few weeks had flooded the road and there were giant puddles everywhere that covered the whole road. I was dodging from side to side, looking for the fastest lines and the smallest puddles. Most of them were shallow enough to ride through as long as you had momentum and just went for it. However I went into a few that came well above the axles on my bike. Twice I was toppled over and completely submerged in the brown, muddy water. It’s alway amazing how long the last 10km of a race can feel, even though I’d covered hundreds of kilometers this week.

The welcoming beach finish finally came, and I finished the stage just a minute behind Louise and Angela. This stage was one of the most rewarding stages because I had a really fun group of people to share the workload and keep me company for most of the day. It is energizing to form a cohesive group and make friends out on the race course.

Like most of the athletes, I went straight into the ocean as a reward for a really hard week of racing. I am really proud of how I raced this week and with my performance. I finished third in a very strong women’s category. Unlike 2006, La Ruta did not have its way with me. Instead, I raced well, gave the course the respect it deserved and had a fantastic time. It goes to show you how experience and the right frame of mind can completely change a situation.

Thank you to the La Ruta race organizers for a fantastic time and thanks to all the riders who shared time with me over the past four days. Perhaps I will see you again!