La Ruta Day 2

photo: Cycling News

Suunto superathlete Rebecca Rusch is tearing it up at La Ruta de los Conquistadores.

Here's a sample from her blog of what Day 2 was like for her:

I’m in the hotel room after day 2 with ice bags on my legs. There’s no bath tub here, so I can’t take a full ice bath.
It was a really tough day with about 45 miles of riding and 11,000 ft of climbing. The climbs were so steep that some of them were unrideable.

Ouch.

Rebecca is keeping pace with Adrianna Rojas, who is currently race leader, and they spent a portion of day 2 riding together.

And what does Day 3 hold?

Tomorrow is the big climb up the volcano. There are some really steep parts at the beginning, but most of the climb is a steady paved road where you can settle into a smooth pace. At the top, you head down for about 40 km. It sounds amazing, but the descent is really technical and tiring.

Keep tabs on the race at Rebecca's blogsite.

Great videos of the race here.

La Ruta Loves the Queen of Pain

La Ruta de Los Conquistadores kicked off on Wednesday, and runs for four total days over 240 miles and five mountain ranges as it takes racers across the continent from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea.

photo: Cycling News

Suunto athlete, Rebecca Rusch is taking on La Ruta and keeping us informed on her blog. Here's a bit from her Day 1 update:

Day 1 of La Ruta is in the books. I had a great day and it felt so good to be racing and working hard again. I’ve sort of had a couple months of really unstructured training, so I had no idea if my legs would remember how to race. I was pleasantly surprised with how I felt today on what they call the hardest day of La Ruta. There was over 10,000 ft of climbing in about 110 km. The jungle hike a bike portion is a bit of a slip and slide event, but it went OK.

Make sure you take a look at this photo gallery from Cycling News!

Update From The Caveman

Suunto athlete Conrad Stoltz, aka "the Caveman" just keeps winning.

He recently traveled back to his homeland of South Africa where he competed in the Western Province Cross Country Championships in Paul Cluver. This was a spontaneous race for Conrad, but he was game for the muddy, XC bike race-- the Western Province MTB Championships--leg #3.Look at the mud! He got his bike caked in muck but claims he "embraced the brown stuff and learned a lot about slipping, sliding and picking lines."

Congrats Caveman! See how he has perfected the "Caveman's Special Tree Grab and Pull Technique."

To read the rest of his blog post click here.