EPIC DOMINATION: Wells wins La Ruta
Specialized Racing: XC MTB | November 6, 2011
In his first-ever mountain bike stage race, Todd Wells (Specialized) won La Ruta de los Conquistadores, an incredibly challenging multi-day slog through Costa Rica. Specialized's Rebecca Rusch hung onto second place overall in the women's contest despite getting sent 20 miles off course on the final stage.
After racing to the podium in cyclocross just the week before, Wells handily switched gears to conquer the four-day race from the Pacific to the Caribbean over five mountain passes. His weapon of choice? The S-Works Epic Carbon 29.
"It feels so good. A race like this is never over until it's over, and it's been a stressful couple of days since I got the jersey on the first day," said Wells. "It seems like someone new steps up each day. I was just lucky to get enough time on that first stage and be able to sit back and conserve."
La Ruta takes racers across five mountain passes over the 240-mile course. Brutally steep climbs combined with deep, thick mud challenge a rider's mental tenacity as well as his bike's durability. Wells and the S-Works Epic passed all challenges with flying colors.
Wells blew the race open on the first day, gaining a crucial 10:34 advantage. Although he lost time on stage 2, he gained it back stage 3 and maintained his margin on the final day.
On the last day, Moises Hernandez solo'ed off the front, and Wells stayed with the main chase group with his main challenger, Rom Akerson (Specialized Costa Rica). Wells and Akerson went clear in the final aid station as each had enough fluids to continue to the end on a hot and humid day while the others had to stop and refill. The two Specialized riders crossed the finish line together behind Hernandez.
When asked whether he would return to Costa Rica for La Ruta, a still-recovering Wells joked, "I don't know, but I'd like to come back for vacation."
The final 20km on Saturday were anything but a vacation as Wells crossed the famous railroad trestle bridges. They are in notoriously decrepit shape with some ties missing. Riders have to step from tie to tie while managing their bikes and without slipping and falling between the ties into deep, raging rivers below.
"I've never done anything like that before," Wells said. "They were a little scary. Some (of the bridges) are long. It gets hot and you're tired. You don't want to make a mistake. You're not likely to fall off, but it'd be easy to slip between the ties and hurt your leg or foot or something."
Wells described his first stage race experience. "Mountain bike stage racing is hard. For me, I get more and more tired every day. Sometimes on the road, you can recover and get better whereas here I felt like I got slower and slower. I'm glad it ended after four days."
After a few days of recovery, Wells will race next at the Louisville GP 'cross race in Kentucky. One more race follows over Thanksgiving and then it's time for the off-season.
Rusch takes a detour
Rebecca Rusch had a bit more adventure than planned in the final day of La Ruta. While racing in second and third place with Louise Kobin and several men, her group blasted past a turn and got off course.
"Between aid stations 1 and 2, we got lost. A group of eight or 10 people and we were just going on a tour of Costa Rica," said Rusch. "We didn't see a marker for awhile and so we were trying to ask. There was some lack of communication. Somebody knew the name of the town that aid station 3 was in, so that helped. We were out of fluid and someone had money and we got Cokes. We were thinking we'd never get here." But they did... 20 miles later.
Things got really interesting when Rusch got back on course with her companions. They were advised to wait for more riders and proceed as a larger group through a dangerous section, where earlier in the day, a casual rider following the race, had gotten his bike stolen at gunpoint.
Rebecca and everyone else got through unscathed. She finished the stage with Kobin for third and fourth place on the day, and she claimed second overall behind Adriana Rojas (Specialized Costa Rica).