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.
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!
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!
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.
