Shawnigan Course Designer, Jason Sandquist, was down in Costa Rica for the four day La Ruta mountain bike race. Here is a short post race summary.

Hey Bryan,

La Ruta killed me.  I am sitting here with a separated AC joint in my shoulder because of that race.  Day one was going great until at 5hrs I pulled the Glute Mead muscle that I injured in my 24 solo in Moab 4 weeks earlier.  Sharp pain went through my legs and I lost power.  At 7hrs in I bought a Pepsi from a road-side vendor and laid in a ditch eating everything that I had left in my pockets figuring that I had about an our to go.  A Costa Rican was also wasted and doing the same thing.  He said that we had 2.5 hours to go.  What the hell?  Make it 3 as I got misdirected and spent some time on a private tour of a coffee plantation.

Day two and I was still hammered from Day 1.  Day two was smoking hot.  I survived it on fumes which would be the way that the rest of my days would go.

Day 3 and we had to climb for 35km up to the summit of the Irazu Volcano.  Very cool.  The descent was like riding in a dry riverbed, if river beds could have lava rock in them.  I got to the final kilometre and dropped my guard and stuffed a ditch.  I was sure that I had broken my collarbone and I was missing allot of flesh from the lava rock.  Turns out I had separated my shoulder.

Day 4 and I had to try to finish so I started at the back of the pack.  I couldn’t lift my arm at all and I was in a ton of pain all day.  We hit a section of railway tracks that absolutely killed.  It was 45 C, my arm was still gushing from my wounds and my shoulder was separated.  This sucked.  I was never so happy to see the finish.  I have ridden once since.

I know why they call this the hardest mountain bike in the world.  On paper it doesn’t sound so bad.  Race it and you will understand.  I have always wanted to do it.  If I didn’t finish I would have had to go back.  No way do I ever want to repeat the first three days again.