A clean race this was not

Santiago, Nuevo Leon, Mexico hosted race #4 of their National Marathon series. Santiago Luna(no relation to the town) and I headed down Saturday to take in all that the mountains of Mexico had to offer.

We arrived in town(very cool place) just before dark and checked into the hotel. This picture was taken from the front of our accommodations for the night. We were literally staying 50yds from the start/finish line. The convenience was huge.

The race was to be 60k, 3 laps around a 20k course that was quite demanding. The mass start ran us through town, a fast downhill and out into the back roads/trails above town. I jumped to the front and set the pace, though it was not real fast, I kept the screws tightened on the climbs to try to drop who I could. This course never really gave us much of a rest in between climbs. we were pretty much going up/down or into a slight headwind when it did flatten out.

The highlight of the course was the approx. 3k climb that got steeper and rockier as we ascended. Towards the top I had about a 20 second lead and widened that out down the ensuing downhill, which was super steep and rutted, always keeping me on my toes(especially without a pre-ride).

After a super cool little single track section,we were treated to what I would guess La Ruta would be like. This was a 100yd long mud bog that had no dry sides to ride on. We basically rode right down the middle in all it's chocolaty goodness. As the race went on, each time got worse and harder to ride through.

Coming through lap 1 in the lead, I had about 30 seconds on 2nd place, that is until the start of the big climb on lap 2. I was caught. No excuses, he just ran me down. So as I followed up the start of the climb, the intensity picked up to a point that I wasn't sure I could keep. It was steep,rocky, rutted and I was near my max. I figured if this guy could keep this up to the end more power to him, he deserved it. We kept it pegged the whole way to the top and as we started our descent, the advantage of having a full suspended bike came in handy to say the least. I made a pass on a rough section, and kept the intensity up. Back through the single track, mud bog, town and out to start lap 3, but no sign of 2nd place. The threat of getting ran down again loomed though, so I switched to my second bottle of Infinit, slammed a couple Clif shots and motored on. I knew that if I could get to the top of the climb again in the lead, it was rough enough to the finish that I would have an advantage.

I rode the whole climb again and still no sign of 2nd, so I kept a good but not too crazy of a pace. Just consistent enough to maintain my lead. One last time up "the wall"( a super steep, paved climb to the finish) and crossed the line in 3hrs 14 min, 1st overall.

Santiago, to my surprise, was at the finish already in his street clothes. He had a problem with his front tire on a descent and took a hard tumble. He then couldn't keep air in the tire and had to abandon, which is a shame, because he most certainly would have been right there with me at the end.

Looking at my Garmin totals for the race supported the pain endured. Nearly 1500 ft of climbing per lap, while I spent the whole race above 80% of max and half of that above 90%. No bike issues, no physical issues, so the day was good. At the end I got to do my best impersonation of a real bike racer.

The announcer was interviewing the racers on the podium, in Spanish. To avoid being totally embarrassed, I told him "No hablo espanol, no preguntas". Though he kept giving me a hard time off mic, he spared me any questions.