Post La Ruta

This year's race had excellent weather overall.  In many ways, I found it made the race easier.  I think my perception of difficulty also changed as I wasn't pushing as hard to empty myself... I knew there wasn't as much in the tank, so I spent some time trying to spin it out and catch the views and the sights.  Evidence of that is that every morning, instead of being dead tired when the alarm went, I was waking up 15 minutes before the alarm feeling rested - which I'd say is a little unusual at a stage race where breakfast on the latest start days is at 4:45am.  

Sitting here a day post race I'm not sore, and I'm not really tired.  I had really hoped to get the bug out of my system this year on La Ruta, but I'm not sure I have yet.  Time will tell.  I honestly find this whole thing pretty enjoyable... but I need to find time to track down the other enjoyable things I may be missing.

The Cannondale Scalpel was a pleasure to ride, I've been impressed with it all season.  I made it through another year down here mechanical and flat tire free.  I ran a skinny 1.8" tire at low pressure on the rear (about 22 psi), which really smoothed out the volcano descent and the train tracks, yet I never heard any rim contact, and examining my rim in the room shows no contact either.  On the fastest parts of the descent I'd look for the rocks that looked most damage inducing and make efforts to unweight, hop, avoid, etc., but other than that it was just riding normal.  Other than the chain suck on day one (I guess that's a half mechanical - nothing broken but it's still not proper functionality), everything was perfect.  At the bottom of the day 2 descent I did boil my front brake fluid and lost braking for 30 seconds, but it was at the very bottom of the hill when I would have coasted anyway.  I've heard 2 horror stories about weight weenies who brought Stan's aluminum rotors.  Trust me on this one... what's good for your local 90 minute up and down XC race circuit doesn't cut it here.  These descents are so steep and so long, braking should be chosen for reliability and power first, weight way further down the list.  I don't think 140mm rear rotors are worth bringing here either, I recommend 160mm front and rear.  Craig's 180mm front rotor probably isn't a bad way to go either.  One guy running Stan's cracked his in 3 places, yet somehow finished, another one catastrophically failed... not a fun few seconds to figure out your landing spot after that happens.

I had in my mind that I was going to do a 4-5 hour opener ride on the Sunday or Monday pre race start on Wednesday, but didn't make it happen as the rest of the group was heading out for a shorter duration.  In retrospect I wish I had... I think something along those lines would help prepare the gringo body for day one.

As with any stage race, it can be lost on day one, but probably not won on day one.  No matter how fast someone is, I think it's best to ride day one at about 90% effort until the final climb.  Anyone who has energy to put out 100% then can reel in a dozen riders in front likely, and if the converse is true, at least you can hobble home at 90% rather than 50%.  My big problem on day one stemmed from not absorbing fluids well.  I thought I was taking in fluids, electrolytes, carbs, in thoughtful and appropriate quantity and proportion, but part way in my body stopped absorbing it.  Feeling the effects of an under hydrated body, I kept drinking, but it wasn't doing anything positive.  In the 5 hours post race, I probably peed a dozen times as it all started working again.  Gotta figure that one out...

Unfortunately our group had a few issues this time, with Pat, Trish and Craig not experiencing optimal health.  Part of that is luck of the draw... I really still think this is a fun and enjoyable race.