December 20/13 12:21 pm - Vuelta Costa Rica: Stages 1 and 2 reports

Posted by Editoress on 12/20/13
 

A Canadian team of riders, racing as 1% for the Planet is currently racing in the Vuelta Costa Rica.  On the team are:

Rider list: Gavriel Epstein, Jean-Michel Lachance, Ryan Roth, Étienne Samson, Anton Varabei, and Julien Gagné

Team member Gavriel Epstein is sending reports.  Epstein was born in Toronto, Canada and now lives in Englewood, NJ just outside NYC. He has been racing for 13 years. This will be the longest race Gavi has ever competed in but is looking forward to the challenge as well as riding with a great bunch of guys and representing a great cause.

Stage 1

Today' s race was great start to El Vuelta, with an out and back stage starting and finishing in the coast in Limon. Pouring rain the entire race. I felt pretty good and surfed some breakaway moves just to see if I could roll away with one without committing much energy. Jean Michel aggressively went out on the attack and got second behind a RusVelo (Russian) rider.

There was one short climb halfway through which we rode over twice - there and back to Limon.  I comfortably stayed in the field; it hurt but not too bad.  I was well positioned for the sprint for sixth or so behind my teammate, but with 1 kilometre to go I lost his wheel in the insanity and then there was a right turn over some metal sewer covers across the entire road, which guys started crashing on in front of me. I stayed safe and just rolled in in the peleton and was happy to hear from Jean Michel on his second place.

Stage 1 results

Stage 2
Another second place in Stage 2 of the Vuelta a Costa Rica.  Today was another flat stage of 174 kilometres before the race starts to pass through the mountains and the team was looking to get another podium result. Although we would be happy with a bunch sprint, having many fast finishers, we felt that there isn't a team that is willing or find it necessary to bring breakaways back for the finish line, and thus deciding that our best shot at getting a podium is getting in the breakaway.

The race started off fast with most teams seemingly having similar plans, but nothing would stick for the first 40 kilometres. It was then that a move of 7 riders finally formalized, including our own Team for the Planet rider Anton Varabei. The breakaway reached up to a 12 minute lead over the peloton at one point, and shedded two riders in the process. Five men kept on pushing steadily until final three kilometres where they started to play cat and mouse games but ended up with all five sprinting to the line with Varabei coming in second, a bike length short of the Victory and the Yellow Jersey! Great racing from Team 1% For the Planet so far. Stay tuned to see how we cope with the mountains tomorrow!

Stage 2 results