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La Ruta: Stage 3

By November 27, 2012March 22nd, 20172 Comments

I was sadly out of contention for day 3, but I still wanted to ride. I was surprised where the race started. We pulled into an extremely poor neighborhood. Instead pangs of guilt took over as I saw how the people there lived, and we were all showing up with our expensive bikes. The race started in a fenced in area.

It was actually nice not to be stressed out about where I was lining up, I just stationed myself by my friends and was planning to ride with them for the day. I remember for stage 1 and 2, I was stressed because there was no official staging and I found myself far from the front. This can be a liability and in other stage races I’ve done, there has been staging based on your place or your cumulative time. Stage 3 was touted as being flat and fast. That was no lie. I was most excited about the infamous railroad bridges.

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After awhile, we came to the railroad bridges.

I was closer to the back, so there was a long wait by the time I got to the bridge!

This is sketchy, but as long as you pay attention, it’s fine. The railroad ties were wet and you could slip and almost fall through.

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There was some relief with a plank. The trick was to not look in between the railroad ties or you get vertigo. It was fun!

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It was raining for a lot of Stage 3, but the stage was over in about 2 hours!

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Finish on the beach

Even though I could not officially finish La Ruta, I had a really great time. Costa Rica is a beautiful place to race a bike with lots of great people.

Post La Ruta, I started my off season and took 3 weeks completely off the bike. I focused on getting started with some of my favorite off season activities and traveled to visit friends and family.

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