February 25/08 8:32 am - Trans Mexicana

Posted by Editoress on 02/25/08
 

Trans Mexicana - Stage 5

After a short rest in the middle of the Mexican Desert the riders set out early to tackle the 75 km of stage 5 which took the riders out of the desert and back into the dense jungle. Lupillo established an early lead over Travis Macey and Cory Wallace on the opening 18 km climb and continued to ride strong as he rode past the 45 km checkpoint 1:35 ahead of Wallace and just over 10 minutes on Macey.

Next came the 19 km (2200 m vertical decent) on very loose gravel roads into a secluded valley which had only one way out, a 4 km portage down river through a canyon. Coming from a adventure racing background, Travis Macey wasted no time schooling Lupillo and Cory on this section of the course running past both riders just over 1 km in and not ever looking back as he would cruise in for the victory.

Meanwhile Lupillo and Cory continued to struggle as they slid through the canyon on their biking shoes, sometimes up to their necks in water with there bikes floating ahead of them downstream. After a gruelling 1.5 hrs through the canyon Wallace would gap Lupillo near the end of the stage and rode in for 2nd 1:37 behind Macey and 3:27 ahead of Lupillo.

Jorge Mendiola Islas (Merida Bikes) would ride in for 4th place 43:20 back. Going into the final stage Lupillos GC lead over Wallace is now down to 5:03, and Macey is back in third at 42:57

In the Masters side of things Doug Hammell continued to extend his GC lead over Jose Luis Perez as he road in 40 minutes of the second place competitor. Going into Sunday's stage Hammell has 1 hr 25 minutes over Jose in the GC.