Forget Le Tour, Lance – how about tackling La Ruta?

By Fred Dreier

It’s no secret that every bike nerd in America was holding his (or her) breath in anticipation of Lance Armstrong’s press conference today in New York City, at which he fleshed out some of the details of his comeback tour.

Just a guess, but I’m willing to bet a bottle of Stan’s tire sealant that the 2009 Tour de Armstrong will focus on the skinny-tire side of bike racing. But personally, I hope Armstrong includes some off-road events in his 2009 schedule as well.

Sure, it is a biased wish — I am VeloNews’ mountain bike guy, and have seen firsthand the interest and publicity his presence generates at fat-tire races. I think more people read our one-day Web report on Lance’s second-place finish at the Leadville 100 than looked at anything from the UCI world championships.

And if Armstrong tackles a few cyclocrosses this fall, as he has promised, you can bet a whole new crop of ’cross fans will hopping barriers by December.

But more than anything, I’d like to see him race La Ruta de los Conquistadores (www.adventurerace.com).

For those not privy, La Ruta is a four-day mountain bike race across Costa Rica, from the Pacific to the Caribbean coasts. Many have called the 250-mile journey through the jungle the toughest challenge in all of mountain bike racing. In addition to a field chock-full of hyper-motivated Costa Ricans, riders face a zillion feet of super-steep climbing, as well as biting bugs, rain, debilitating mud and frustration.

I raced La Ruta last year, and the defining moment of my race came with just six miles remaining. Cross-eyed and coated in thick jungle mud, I suffered flat tire No. 3 in about 100 feet of riding on molar-rattling railroad ties. I Bjarne Riis-ed my mountain bike into the jungle, cursing the race at the top of my lungs.

But that’s a whole other story.

Back to Armstrong — from an industry perspective, his participation would obviously bring added exposure to La Ruta and mountain bike racing in general. It might add momentum to the ever-growing number of mountain bike stage races worldwide, and persuade a new crop of MTB weekend warriors to sign up for La Ruta, the Absa Cape Epic or TransRockies races.

From a fan’s perspective, watching Lance grunt it out on a mountain bike through the jungle would be sweet. And he may well be the only shot America has at winning La Ruta. After 16 years no American or Canadian man has found a way beat the Costa Ricans (Ticos) on their home turf.

A younger Tinker Juarez could have probably sealed the deal, but now in his 40’s, he has flirted with the top-five for the last four years. America’s top World Cup talent Adam Craig was seventh in ’06, but swore off the race for good after finishing. Jeremiah Bishop made a decent run at the overall that year, but crashed and shattered his jaw on stage 2.

The legendary Swiss Thomas Frischknecht is the only gringo to have won La Ruta, a feat he accomplished in 2005. Frischi lists that result near the top of his two decades of palmares, including the Olympic silver medal, multiple World Cup titles and world championship.

Why the shutout?

For starters, La Ruta falls in mid November, when most of North America’s cross-country pros are either in deep hibernation or racing cyclocross. The race’s reputation as a royal kick-in-the-you-know-what has simply chased off others.

Costa Rica’s brutal conditions and the the Tico riders have done the rest.

None of the North American and European pros at last year’s La Ruta even came close to the victory. Costa Rican hero Frederico Ramirez won his record fifth La Ruta by a whopping 28 minutes, virtually unopposed. Some gringos complained of the Ticos’ racing style — they reported seeing the top men receiving outside assistance from locals on four wheelers and motorcycles. Others got sick or frustrated. Still others simply didn’t have the legs to go all four days at the pace.

With his strong ride at August’s Leadville 100, Armstrong has shown that he can, indeed, race a mountain bike at a high level. And Armstrong 2.0 appears highly motivated to compete in all forms of bicycle races at the moment, perhaps even an off-road stage race across Costa Rica. As to whether he’s tough enough to win — I think we know the answer to that.

This bike nerd is not holding his breath for Lance Armstrong to announce his plans to tackle La Ruta this year. Chasing the best Euro road pros around Switzerland is probably better prep for the Tour de France than mucking through jungle mud.

And I’m definitely not holding it in hopes of an American or Canadian crossing the finish line first.

But I will be riding my own bike in next few weeks. You see, I’m heading back down to Costa Rica to try to finish the thing one more time.

This time, I’m aiming for no bike chuck.

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