All-American MTB Action Advice – Especially for Beginners
We have collected some nice pieces of information from seasoned MTB participants to help their expectations if they plan to participate in the San Juan Howler, Guatemala’s El Reto or Costa Rica’s La Ruta for the very first time.
To ride for fun, get in shape, and share those good times with friends. A great tip for first-time MTB riders is – leave the competitive side out of it!
Winner of Costa Rica’s world famous La Ruta de los Conquitadores 2009 is Manny Manuel Prado, where the information comes straight from.
For serious MTB racers, it’s all about the journey and not necessarily the destination (And it’s just as relevant when it comes to other races.) Like Howler course designer Anthony Ippolito says, just “Have fun! This is exactly why we do this!
Preparing for Success
To race your best and return home with unforgettable and also inspiring MTB action to rival any X-Games racer’s on ESPN-TV it is vital to come prepared mentally and physically!
Training your hear rate zones is important. Especially in a race like Howler because you will use all zones, as Anthony will remind you.
Rob Thomas, as a sponsor and volunteer course-creator, has said that this course is very rough on tires. To be prepared, riders need to have with them a patch kit or extra tubes. For bike riders, it very common to have punctured tires. Even with thick tubes, lined tires, with Armadillo reinforcement, punctures still occasionally occur.
Rob and the Howler course construction team collaborated with some rare topographical maps to create this course. They stated that they had connected some trails. At times, we had to travel on the footpaths used by Campesinos, who are the aboriginals of those jungles.
At one part, we just could not connect, so we cut away with some machetes and hacked a path through a few hundred yards of jungle. However, a couple of our men hacked into a bee’s nest. Running and screaming with a huge cloud of bees chasing them, I was amazed to see people everywhere! ‘ Rob remembers it’.
Howler monkeys will most definitely be cheering for you as well.
The current year’s victorious La Ruta champions say, “Be modest, because the worst scum in the world is made of the same material as you; have confidence, because the stars have the same substance as you.
In 2004, Manny Prado completed his inaugural La Ruta attempt, and he reached 44th place. He stood 13th in the year 2006. In the race in 2007, he came in 10th place. He was crowned La Ruta champ in 2009.
What is our take? “Never give in and never give up!” Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Author: Discover the mountain bike adventures that Brian Richter and Sunamita Lim uncovered in Central America! You could only wish for such a fascinating area for mountain bike adventures. Click on MTB riders now to discover and enjoy for this virgin area.
