This year's La Ruta (or La Puta - the whore - as she is known) was a tough race by anyone's standards. The elite riders made it look like a walk in the park but for a 58-year old novice mountain biker like me it was a brutal - almost biblical - experience.
My brother-in-law, Andrew Yates, lives in Texas and persuaded me to enter. He and four friends from Texas all raced, too. I do quite a bit of road biking, with some tours in the Alps, so it didn't appear an insurmountable challenge when I filled in the form. Andrew fixed me up with a hard-tail Kelly running on 29in carbon wheels, which was a dream to ride.
What surpised me about La Ruta was the amount of hiking and carrying, the scale of the ruts and... the mud. We live in Yorkshire and it gets muddy here but, sweet Jesus, not on the scale of Costa Rica! Under the circumstances, I managed the first two days in what turned out to be reasonably decent times, leaving me on 6th place overall in the veterans class.
Then, disaster. Towards the end of Day 3, my carbon handlebar snapped on a steep descent. With a bloodied nose and some cuts and bruises, I started running to the finish when a local Costa Rican offered me his old mountain bike to ride the remaining 10 miles to the finish line. This act of kindness meant I retained my 6th place overall. However, closer inspection at the finish showed I needed some stiches, so I was bounced off to the local clinic in the blood wagon along with Jake Pantone from Utah (who had some bad cuts to one of his legs) and Texan David Boyd, with similar injuries to one of his arms.
The hospital staff were accommodating, if a little inefficient, but they sewed eveyone up with care (and some amusement). Meanwhile, Tinker Juarez had kindly enlisted his mechanic's help to fix up my bike. But the next morning the combined effect of anaesthic, tetanus jab and antibiotics meant walking was a struggle, let alone riding. So, sadly I dropped out of Day 4 and was awarded a DNF.
Looking back, there's not much I could have done to avoid the bar snapping, but La Ruta calls for a level of fitness and mental strength I've not had to call on for 30 years.
Will I do it agin? Probably not. It was (and will remain) a fantastic experience and one I'd recommend for those of a really adventurous disposition. Just get a lot of climbing and carrying training for four days in a row with 3:45am wake up calls. On a diet of rice and beans!
