Ouch, the stage 10 climb hurt. Ouch again as the 30 km time trial today hurt even more. I experienced a bad case of deja vu as the time trial we did took place on the same 30 km piece of highway in which I got monkey sick in 2007 while bike touring. That day was probably my biggest gongshow day ever on a bike as my engine fell apart after weeks of copoius amounts of biking and I was swerving all over the road and puking in the ditches. It took me over 3 hrs to ride the small piece of highway. When I finally made it to the town of San Isidro I went to Mcdonalds, bought a smartie Mcflurry then passed out on a table for a couple hours and soon after hopped a bus to San Jose where I spent the next week curled up in a hammock. Today was different. The ride took just over 40 minutes although it was full of flashbacks and the guys with time trial bars and aero helmets definatly made us mtb look a little slow. At the finish line I cruised by Mcdonalds to a proper food joint and started refueling for the ride back to San Jose tommorow.
Stage 12 is the final day of the Vuelta. The Queen stage they call it as they saved the best for last as we will acend from 700m up to 3300 in just over 40 km. Over the climb we will have a 100km, 2300m vertical decent into San Jose where the beers and the flor de cana rum will wait for stage 13.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
9 down, 3 to go.
The Vuelta is getting weird as all us riders are starting to act hungover 24/7. The dutch are starting to understand the guatemalans, the english canadians are starting to understand the french part of the team and the Russians are still hanging around the hotel surfing around on facebook all day. Not too sure why the Russians arn´t down on the beaches with the bikinis but I havn´t understood many of there decisions since they arrived.
After two crazy climbing days and an uphill time trial we were given a day of rest on the 24th to send out belated wish lists to Santa. I headed to the Canadian embassy to send mine as 3 of our packs were randomly selected for Santas anonymous and somebody took off with our pass ports. Guess I may be stuck down her a little longer after the race until Santa finds me with a new pass port. I am really sad about this as I may have to head down to the beaches to kill some time. After my embassy visit, Cody Canning and I headed down to the nearby town of Sant Ana for Christmas haircuts. They took close to 3 hrs and once they were done it was dark. Not quite what we had in mind for a rest day but we hopped on our bikes and pedalled 1 hr back to San Jose in the dark. The locals said we were gonna get mugged with our nice bikes as the city was dangerous at night. We were lucky and didn´t get mugged although I was questioning how ¨dangerous¨ it really was as kids were playing on the streets and and Chirstmas music filled the air.
Today was stage 9, the Presidents Circuit in the beach town of Jaco. Doing 10 laps of a 10 km course with bikini girls lining the streets was enough to get me off the back of the pack and into a 6 man break for the last 3 laps. I figured if there was ever a stage to win this would be the one but the only problem was that my legs dont´sprint so well as 8 hr bike touring days build more of a diesel engine then the croch rockets the Ticos are riding.
After the race we stopped at a river to see alligators. We couldn´t see them so well off the bridge so we pulled a Jon Nutbrown and went down to the river bank to get a closer look. Our photographer was getting some sweet shots of them but when the Guatemalan with us got a 12 ft stick and began poking one of the gators we decided it was time to go before someone got munched on. The scariest part of the day was the 2hr drive back to San Jose. We saw 6 vehicles with smoking engines on one of the steep climbs and witnessed numerous close accidents. I don´t understand why there aren´t more accidents in this country with the crazy highways and the even crazier drivers. I think Costa Rican´s would make the best rally car drivers ever.
Tommorow we climb a 50 km 2600 m climb. Not sure where were going but it sounds like a nice ride. It will probably hurt though with the Colombians setting the pace.
Merry Christmas!
After two crazy climbing days and an uphill time trial we were given a day of rest on the 24th to send out belated wish lists to Santa. I headed to the Canadian embassy to send mine as 3 of our packs were randomly selected for Santas anonymous and somebody took off with our pass ports. Guess I may be stuck down her a little longer after the race until Santa finds me with a new pass port. I am really sad about this as I may have to head down to the beaches to kill some time. After my embassy visit, Cody Canning and I headed down to the nearby town of Sant Ana for Christmas haircuts. They took close to 3 hrs and once they were done it was dark. Not quite what we had in mind for a rest day but we hopped on our bikes and pedalled 1 hr back to San Jose in the dark. The locals said we were gonna get mugged with our nice bikes as the city was dangerous at night. We were lucky and didn´t get mugged although I was questioning how ¨dangerous¨ it really was as kids were playing on the streets and and Chirstmas music filled the air.
Today was stage 9, the Presidents Circuit in the beach town of Jaco. Doing 10 laps of a 10 km course with bikini girls lining the streets was enough to get me off the back of the pack and into a 6 man break for the last 3 laps. I figured if there was ever a stage to win this would be the one but the only problem was that my legs dont´sprint so well as 8 hr bike touring days build more of a diesel engine then the croch rockets the Ticos are riding.
After the race we stopped at a river to see alligators. We couldn´t see them so well off the bridge so we pulled a Jon Nutbrown and went down to the river bank to get a closer look. Our photographer was getting some sweet shots of them but when the Guatemalan with us got a 12 ft stick and began poking one of the gators we decided it was time to go before someone got munched on. The scariest part of the day was the 2hr drive back to San Jose. We saw 6 vehicles with smoking engines on one of the steep climbs and witnessed numerous close accidents. I don´t understand why there aren´t more accidents in this country with the crazy highways and the even crazier drivers. I think Costa Rican´s would make the best rally car drivers ever.
Tommorow we climb a 50 km 2600 m climb. Not sure where were going but it sounds like a nice ride. It will probably hurt though with the Colombians setting the pace.
Merry Christmas!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Road Racing
Road Racing in the Vuelta de Costa Rica is like doing interval sessions for 4 hrs a day, day after day after day. I havn't done intervals in 2 yrs and these intervals are the variety that last anywhere from 10 seconds to 1 hr, the pack decides. The first few days blew my lungs up and left my legs in a world of hurt but since then the body seems to be adapting alright as I have slowly moved up from finishing in the mid 30's to 25th today. With the so called "flat stages" behind us we will start up on the mtns tommorow.So far our team of 7 from Canada has had its ups and downs as Jean Michael Lachance was in the sprinters jersey for 3 days before crashing out in todays stage to join Arnaud who also crashed out of the Vuelta. There are 5 of us left now and the pace is picking up although we seem to be getting more adapted to the nasty pace being set by the Ticos.
The 5 teams from Costa Rica are flying as this is there show. Guatemala is all over the place. On day 3 three of them hit the same pothole with two of them flatting and the other going down. They also have a crazy 110 lb climber who is riding in the top 10. The Russians won stage 2 and 3 but then boycotted the race after one of there riders was dsq for cutting 20 km of the course and then winning a stage. Not to sure what happened there. The Dutch are suffering as I don't think they have hills in Holland like they do here. The Colombians are starting to rev it up as the real mtn stages start tommorow. This week they have been busy shaving bus drivers heads and whistling at girls.
Highlights of the week have been watching a dog run into the middle of the pack and somehow dodging all the bikes and not causing a massive pile up. Yesterday we deceneded a road at 75 kmh with 1 ft deep potholes all over the place. It was like dodging land mines. At least 3 riders hit the pavement hard and about 12 others flatted. Today the huge crosswind sent a few riders mtb riding into the ditch. I never new road racing could be so exciting but I am starting to find a liking for it. Tommorow will be a real test as the road tilts skywards.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Vuelta de Costa Rica
12 day road race starting on wednesday... (http://www.vueltacostarica.com/vuelta2009/)
http://www.tourdequebec.com/article.php?sid=150
Living with 4 teamates from Quebec, training in 28 degree temps.... good times.
Getting ready to roll...
http://www.tourdequebec.com/article.php?sid=150
Living with 4 teamates from Quebec, training in 28 degree temps.... good times.
Getting ready to roll...
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Tour de Panama
Post La Ruta is a weird time as the body and mind experience an aftershock something like what a drunk experiences when they try and sober up. This year the days of post La Ruta started in the small village of Puerto Viejo on Costa Ricans east coast. This town has a plume of marijuana smoke coming from it with everyone and there dogs trying to impersonate Bob Marley. The overall attitude is “nobody moves, nobody gets hurt.” Pretty much the reverse motto of La Ruta.
On our second night we headed off to the beach to get away from the reggae noise and check out the crashing waves. After 4 minutes of tranquility we were ambushed by 8 policia with machine guns as they figured 4 gringos on the beach must be smoking the ganga. I couldn’t stop smirking at the robo cops as they tried to act tough. I thought it was a goodtime given I was probably the only person in the whole town who had never smoked marijuana. I wasn't too sure about the history of my friends but we all escaped without incident. I have nothing against marijuana or people that smoke it. I figure it has a much better overall effect on society then alcohol but nonetheless I rather get high off my bike. After an unsuccessful search, the robo cops wandered away rattled. I’m pretty sure they would need the whole Costa Rican police force to deal with the weed problem there.
Having enough of that gong show we headed off too Bocas Island in Panama for Spanish school and living on the ocean for $10 a day. We learned some very important Spanish phrases which will come in handy.
“A donde Chica’s picante?” and “Bueno Culo”
This Panama island was a proper place to relax although the weed was still everywhere. As we walked down the streets the locals would walk up to us saying their three words of English “weed, weed, weed”. After the 8th time of this I confronted one of the weed men and tried to sell him pills of vitamin C which I had in my pocket and hassled him till he walked away. This tactic probably wouldn’t last long before we got into trouble but we were scheduled to ride off the next day so we made full use of it.
The 110 km ride inland Panama is epic as it tours along Panama’s poverty stricken Caribbean coast and then climbs over the continental divide through lush jungle. The last two yrs I did this ride it went somewhat smoothly with no confrontations. This yr I was being told it was dangerous and not to do it alone. I figured info coming from drunken American ex-pats wasn’t legit so I headed off on my ride. Three km into the ride a man in the ditch began yelling at me while whirling his machete overhead. Ten minutes later 8 seventeen yr old punks walking down the highway with there hats on backwards and skull t-shirts tried to stare me down. A little later I stopped at a store for some water and 6 punks surrounded my bike and tried to look tough. I bought a bag of M&M’s to share with the punks and pretty soon we were friends. Seven hrs later I rolled into the Lost and Found hostel unscathed and still a firm believer that people are good wherever you go in this world.
After two nights of Snoreathon in the 13 bed dorm room I talked my friends Jeff and Karen from New Zealand into moving onto the quite mountain town of Boquete for some proper rest. 2 days of riding later we came on the peaceful little town. What we didn’t know was that it was Panama’s independence weekend and they had set up speakers throughout the town to insure everybody was involved in partying till 4 am for 3 straight nights. Night 1 we gave in and headed down to the party where we found a no cover charge, no liquor charge party zone. This = trouble. We couldn’t understand who would give away liquor in these quantities for free but nobody complained.
Trying to fight off a cold and a still a little fatigued I headed for Costa Rica the next day as I signed up for a road race called the Vuelta de Costa Rica which needed proper training. As the daylight faded I opted to hop on a bus so I could meet my Tico friend Ronald and his family at there cottage on the Pacific Coast for the weekend.
Buses are a great idea but I have a long history with them and we don’t get along. This bus was no different as there were over 70 people on the 50 seat bus. After standing in an aisle smelling BO for 45 minutes people began complaining “Much Frio, (were cold)” and everybody started to close the windows. “What??? You guys are drunk, this is a Much Sauna.” After another 10 minutes of dripping sweat and trying not to puke from the twisty pothole ridden road I got off the bus at the next stop which was very soon given we were on the milk run. It was dark out and my 7 hr bus ride only lasted 1.5 hrs so I had no clue where I was but that bus was a rolling gong show that I had no interest in being involved in. I spent the night in a ½ star Chinese hotel, woke up at 6 am and rode 180 km, close to my friend’s house and received a nice surprise as Ronald and his girlfriend Angela gave me a ride the last 20 km of the way. The next two days were spent getting a 100% pure Costa Rican sunburn, practicing my hammock swing and tossing peanuts to crocodiles.
Since then things have been calm as I have rented an apartment close to San Jose for the month and have settled into a proper routine of training in the mornings and studying to be a nutrition consultant in the afternoons. Looking at ridiculous weather reports from Canada I’m content as I transform from a mountain biker into a road racer for the 12 day Vuelta de Costa Rica starting on the 16th. I will be racing with the Tour de Quebec team from Quebec. Apparently the race has around a 50% attrition rate and theres National teams from Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala coming. Not too sure what I've signed up for but my friend Ronald has been looking after me and has been showing me how the Ticos train down here (25% climbs, 25 km climbs up volcanos and high end bike skills in an attempt to survive on the roadways.)
On our second night we headed off to the beach to get away from the reggae noise and check out the crashing waves. After 4 minutes of tranquility we were ambushed by 8 policia with machine guns as they figured 4 gringos on the beach must be smoking the ganga. I couldn’t stop smirking at the robo cops as they tried to act tough. I thought it was a goodtime given I was probably the only person in the whole town who had never smoked marijuana. I wasn't too sure about the history of my friends but we all escaped without incident. I have nothing against marijuana or people that smoke it. I figure it has a much better overall effect on society then alcohol but nonetheless I rather get high off my bike. After an unsuccessful search, the robo cops wandered away rattled. I’m pretty sure they would need the whole Costa Rican police force to deal with the weed problem there.
Having enough of that gong show we headed off too Bocas Island in Panama for Spanish school and living on the ocean for $10 a day. We learned some very important Spanish phrases which will come in handy.
“A donde Chica’s picante?” and “Bueno Culo”
This Panama island was a proper place to relax although the weed was still everywhere. As we walked down the streets the locals would walk up to us saying their three words of English “weed, weed, weed”. After the 8th time of this I confronted one of the weed men and tried to sell him pills of vitamin C which I had in my pocket and hassled him till he walked away. This tactic probably wouldn’t last long before we got into trouble but we were scheduled to ride off the next day so we made full use of it.
The 110 km ride inland Panama is epic as it tours along Panama’s poverty stricken Caribbean coast and then climbs over the continental divide through lush jungle. The last two yrs I did this ride it went somewhat smoothly with no confrontations. This yr I was being told it was dangerous and not to do it alone. I figured info coming from drunken American ex-pats wasn’t legit so I headed off on my ride. Three km into the ride a man in the ditch began yelling at me while whirling his machete overhead. Ten minutes later 8 seventeen yr old punks walking down the highway with there hats on backwards and skull t-shirts tried to stare me down. A little later I stopped at a store for some water and 6 punks surrounded my bike and tried to look tough. I bought a bag of M&M’s to share with the punks and pretty soon we were friends. Seven hrs later I rolled into the Lost and Found hostel unscathed and still a firm believer that people are good wherever you go in this world.
After two nights of Snoreathon in the 13 bed dorm room I talked my friends Jeff and Karen from New Zealand into moving onto the quite mountain town of Boquete for some proper rest. 2 days of riding later we came on the peaceful little town. What we didn’t know was that it was Panama’s independence weekend and they had set up speakers throughout the town to insure everybody was involved in partying till 4 am for 3 straight nights. Night 1 we gave in and headed down to the party where we found a no cover charge, no liquor charge party zone. This = trouble. We couldn’t understand who would give away liquor in these quantities for free but nobody complained.
Trying to fight off a cold and a still a little fatigued I headed for Costa Rica the next day as I signed up for a road race called the Vuelta de Costa Rica which needed proper training. As the daylight faded I opted to hop on a bus so I could meet my Tico friend Ronald and his family at there cottage on the Pacific Coast for the weekend.
Buses are a great idea but I have a long history with them and we don’t get along. This bus was no different as there were over 70 people on the 50 seat bus. After standing in an aisle smelling BO for 45 minutes people began complaining “Much Frio, (were cold)” and everybody started to close the windows. “What??? You guys are drunk, this is a Much Sauna.” After another 10 minutes of dripping sweat and trying not to puke from the twisty pothole ridden road I got off the bus at the next stop which was very soon given we were on the milk run. It was dark out and my 7 hr bus ride only lasted 1.5 hrs so I had no clue where I was but that bus was a rolling gong show that I had no interest in being involved in. I spent the night in a ½ star Chinese hotel, woke up at 6 am and rode 180 km, close to my friend’s house and received a nice surprise as Ronald and his girlfriend Angela gave me a ride the last 20 km of the way. The next two days were spent getting a 100% pure Costa Rican sunburn, practicing my hammock swing and tossing peanuts to crocodiles.
Since then things have been calm as I have rented an apartment close to San Jose for the month and have settled into a proper routine of training in the mornings and studying to be a nutrition consultant in the afternoons. Looking at ridiculous weather reports from Canada I’m content as I transform from a mountain biker into a road racer for the 12 day Vuelta de Costa Rica starting on the 16th. I will be racing with the Tour de Quebec team from Quebec. Apparently the race has around a 50% attrition rate and theres National teams from Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala coming. Not too sure what I've signed up for but my friend Ronald has been looking after me and has been showing me how the Ticos train down here (25% climbs, 25 km climbs up volcanos and high end bike skills in an attempt to survive on the roadways.)
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