Anyone doing LA RUTA DE LOS CONQUITADORES? The route goes from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribean Sea. Following the route of the Conquitsadors. What could be funner than 3-days of pain and self torture in the jungle? :?: OCRider
Heat, bugs, and humidity does not sound like fun to me. Having been in the rain forest before, in Belize...it was beautiful but miserable. The tropical sun is relentless. I would have to ride at night and sleep during the day. From what I have heard, there is very little singletrack in Costa Rica.
Ya I heard its mostly steep gravely fire roads and stuff. And I guess 100 degrees and 95 percent humidity is ideal weather. Cuz it can rain for days there.
The owner of Team Sho-Air(skyking)is doing this race I think. I heard its all fireroads too. sounds pretty insane!
I also have to question the hardest race on the planet....80 miles and 6,000 ft climbing...over three days. Nights in a hotel?...support. I am thinkin that would insult the guys that do the Great Divide Mountain Bike Race....2470 miles, 200,000 feet of climbing and no support. What about the people that bike the Iditarod. Hardest Race on the Planet=marketing crap. Though I am sure it is one tough ride. If I go to Costa Rica it will be to ***surf***
Creampuff I think is the hardest. Mario Correa does the Ruta every year and does damn good at it. I think somebody other then a Costa Rican finally won it this last time out. It's not all fireroads, but mostly something ressembling a road. Still a very, very tuff race. The end up going thru rivers streams, mud a bridge that you can look down into the water from way up above and chances are you will die if you fall, so this is really no ride in the park, but not a toughest race either.
You may be right. My wife has done... Cream Puff 100 Brian Head 100 (twice) Soul Ride 100 Cohutta 100 Leadville 100 and many other marathon events usually over 60-70miles... In her opinion, even though Leadville kicks your butt (I agree) because the whole race takes place above 10k, it only climbs 11k. Granted that 11k feels worse due to the altitude. She claims Cream Puff has been the most difficult race she's done. 100 miles and 18k of climbing....and a huge amount of singletrack. Interesting to note that the Vision Quest compares in difficulty to the other "not as tough" 100 milers. Rumor has it the "E100" and "Breckenridge100" are on the top of the tough list. I believe both are almost 100% singletrack.... La Ruta's challenge seems to be more about the bugs and the weather...and if your equipment can survive the mud etc. Would be interesting to hear Mario's take on it...
La Ruta is hard no doubt about it. Several factors make it a very challenging race: 1) The Costa Rican riders are very strong. Not just any local can compete, they must do well enough in a qualifiying event early in the year which to the best of my knowledge is the same course as that of day 2. 2) The conditions. It can be extrememly hot and humid, there can be some intense rain storms, and insane mud. On the top of the volcano on day 2 it can be freezing cold. I think several Europens had to drop out on day 2 in 2001 because they were hypothermic. As would be expected, the mud can wreak havoc with race plans. 3) The course. There's not much single track but there's plenty of double track and very steep sections. The total elevation gain over 3 days varies from about 23,000-28,000ft. Unlike other some of the other popular big races such as the Transalps, Transrockies and Cape Epic where you have a day or two before the hard stages, day 1 at La Ruta is the hardest stage. Most people drop out on day; there's usually a 3/4 finish rate. The race never gets easier. Any changes that Roman, the race director, makes usually means more time for punishment. I have great respect for anyone who finishes that race no matter their placing. I'll be doing La Ruta for the 4th time this year. This link has a few "interviews" with racers I know, like Sho-Air's Manny and La Ruta Lou, that has some of their thoughts on how to approach the race if you are gonna race it. http://enjoying-the-ride.blogspot.com/1990/01/notable-posts.html Here's the offical website:http://www.adventurerace.com/eng/english.htm
TransAlps race is got to be in the running. http://www.sugoi.ca/consumer/news.a...W3ISBMS09IAYQ2Z&archive=true&JSTestPositive=Y "Considered the toughest and most extreme mountain bike stage race in the world, the TransAlp Challenge covers 662 km of epic terrain with over 22,000 metres of climbing. Commencing in Mittenwald, Germany and culminating 8 days later in Riva del Garda, Italy the TransAlp Challenge receives 8,000 hopeful participant applications with 1000 being chosen to hit the start line."
The Transalp is hard but the main challenge there is finding a suitable partner. Theoretically it should be "harder", say if both teammates were of similar strength, because there is more distance and elevation but in reality one teammate is always stronger than the other so it's possible to race the Transalp and not have as tough a race as one would have racing solo at La Ruta; I've done that. Of course there are plenty of other races that are hard but each has something different that makes it hard. There are hard team races like the Crocodile Trophy. Hard self-supported races like The Great Divide Race. There are epic races like the one from the Northern tip of Africa to the Southern tip, Tour dAfrique. There's the hardcore Ironbike race and the list goes on. Then again a long race isn't always the "hardest" race. Former world champion Thomas Frischknecht said La Ruta was difficult but had doubts that it was as hard as the Olympic XC race.
