December 21/13 10:38 am - Vuelta Kolbi of Costa Rica: Stage 4 report and results, Lachance wins

Posted by Editoress on 12/21/13
 

Vuelta Costa Rica Stage 4 Report - A Canadian Win

The Canadian team of 1% for the Planet is racing at the Vuelta Costa Rica, and Gavriel Epstein has been sending us reports.  On the team are:  Gavriel Epstein, Jean-Michel Lachance, Ryan Roth, Étienne Samson, Anton Varabei, and Julien Gagné.  Stage four was particularly good for the team, with Lachance winning (and sending his own report).

Gavy report: Today's stage turned out to be very difficult. No long climbs but tons of short ones [can] add up and it did; to almost 7500 feet of climbing. I was involved in a crash early on in the stage which forced me to use a lot of energy to get back to the field, about 20 kilometres into the stage. Then I spent the next 60 kilometres yoyoing back and forth out the back of the peloton until we finally descended onto the main Highway. It didn't get any easier though, as the pace really kicked up in the crosswinds. We were in the gutter for about 30 kilometres, but I felt more comfortable in the gutter that on the climbs and was able to finish with the field. But what really made my day was crossing the finish line and hearing that my teammate Jean Michel had won today's stage. - Gavy

JM report: I am very happy with the stage win ! The day before, I had "tourista" and was completely empty, not able to eat before and during the race, and lost roughly 1minute / kilometre in the last 20  kilometres of the race ! After the tough race, I was able to eat again and was feeling much better the next morning. Having done the race in years before, I knew the finish and was expecting a field sprint, in which I was hoping for a strong finish. Though, the race course was much different with lots of climbing to get to the finish town of Liberia.

After 20 kilometres to go, I saw GC guys attacking and I figured it was a important move to mark and I jumped hard to bridge across. It was pretty hard only to follow the group in the rolling hills at the start [of the break] as we quickly gained 10 minutes on the main peloton. With the JPS team present in big numbers, they did the most work in the group and I was able to save my legs as much as I could in the group (16 riders). With 9 kilometres to go, we caught Marconi Duran from Coopenae who rode very strong throughout the stage, forcing JPS to chase.

From that moment, all [the] cards played in my favour, as I was the fastest rider in the group. I stayed calm until the finish and let the others start the sprint unlike stage one where I lost a big opportunity of wearing the yellow. I then launched my sprint from fifth and passed all riders to raise my arms in the air for a fraction of a second (there were so many journalists and photographers to dodge after the line). I am very happy with that result and will be wearing the "regularidad" turtle jersey! Stage 5 is flat and I will try to pad my lead in the classification.

Thanks for following us and thanks to all person who supports us. JM - Team 1% for the Planet.

Results from the fourth stage in Costa Rica
cycling+canada Source CanadianCyclist.com