December 23/13 9:29 am - Team 1% for the Planet -Report Stage 5 & 6 of Vuelta Costa Rica

Posted by Editoress on 12/23/13
 

The Canadian team of 1% for the Planet is racing at the Vuelta Costa Rica, and has been sending us reports.  On the team are:  Gavriel Epstein, Jean-Michel Lachance, Ryan Roth, Étienne Samson, Anton Varabei, and Julien Gagné.  Stages five and six saw Lachance extend his lead in the Regularidad jersey competition.  Ryan Roth and Jean-Michel have sent reports, plus we have results for stage 6, photos and links to team videos.

Report for Stage 5 by Ryan Roth
Stage 5 was another hot one. On paper it was to be 148 kilometres of flat to rolling roads from Liberia to Santa Cruz. As so often happens, a break roller away early in the stage and Jean-Michel was in there for us. The group of five worked together well as the team of the leader JPS-Giant and Cuba rode to limit the advantage. As we got closer to the (expected) finish the gap dropped to 1:30. However, there was a mistake in the distance and the stage ended up being closer to 170 kilometres. This extra distance did not hurt the breakaway, as the chase stalled out and they [the break] fought out the stage win. Jean-Michel finshed third to go along with his first and second places in the Vuelta so far. The rest of the team finished safely in the main field and had a relatively easy day, hopefully giving us fresh legs for tomorrow's tough stage which features the first category 1 climb so far.

Stage 5 results

Report for Stage 6 by Jean-Michel Lachance
With a distance of 174 kilometres and a category one climb at the end of the race, this stage from Santa Cruz to San Ramon promised to be a big test! The race started strangely, with the leader JPS team happy to let 26 riders go up the road not even 10 kilometres into the stage. When I saw the way they were riding, I took a chance and attacked even though the gap was already pointing at 1:30. I was joined by two riders - Carlos Lopez from Mexico and Bryan Villalobos from Costa Rica. We rode very hard and only made junction to the group around the 55 kilometre mark. By then, the lead to the peloton was about nine minutes. I was happy to see Gavriel and Etienne in the break. With a "breakaway" that big, the cohesion was not perfect among the group and there was constant attacking until it settled down.

Around the 100 kilometre mark, our group had a serious lead of 12 minutes over the field and I followed a Cuban and a Guatemalan who attacked. We rode well together and started the climb with 1:30 on the chase group. Soon enough, the best climbers from the chase group joined and passed us as I stayed within my limits on the climb.

As the race situation settled, I was now on the second group on the road with six riders in front. The climb was 20 kilometres long with the last 10 kilometres at 6%. I was able to follow the group with a good cadence. With 34 degree weather, I must have gone through 15-20 bottles just like the day before. As we climbed, we caught three of the riders in front who overestimated their capacity and my group was now fighting for fourth place.

When we reached the top of the climb, 6 kilometres to the finish, my group was now down to six riders. Quickly after the descent as we hit the flat towards the finish line, Juan Carlos Rojas, the leader of the Vuelta, came from nowhere. He managed to close down an enormous gap during the 20 kilometre climb, as the last gap we heard before the climb was 12 minutes! This was good coincidence for me, as I let him do all the work which helped me taking the sprint for fourth and padding my "regularidad" jersey lead. I now have 31points advantage on Jose Vega who won the stage. I was very happy with the way I raced both tactically and physically, as this is one of the hardest day I've had in a bike race.

Monday we have a uphill time trial.  Thanks for following us !

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