A few weeks ago I did a catered three day ride in Central America called Travesia Montecristo. The website is http://travesiamontecristo.esquipulas.com.gt
I am just posting this now because they put up a load of photos at http://www.esquipulas.com.gt/galeria/categories.php?cat_id=263&sessionid=ce19b169f2cef86e6a1335b86bc23810
There are close-ups of me on pages 4, 28, and 31. I am wearing the white jersey with the horse behind me on page 4.
This ride went through Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador where these countries border each other, near the mountain Montecristo. We never crossed a border at an official border crossing, we had permission to cross on jeep trails as this ride was sponsored by tourism bureaus from each country.
As I am now living in Honduras and have been riding with the Honduran MTB club, I rode representing Honduras. We were supposed to have four riders, two being a father and son. But when our team crossed the border into El Salvador for the start, Immigration would not let the 15 year old son cross with his father, because he did not have a signed notarized letter of permission from his mother. That sounds like something that would happen in the U.S., not in these countries where pretty much anything goes, as long as you are not hurting someone else. So anyway we lost two riders, and just my friend Hector and I represented Honduras.
All together there were about eighty riders, all the others represented Guatemala or El Salvador. But not every rider rode every day.
Hector and I did a great job of representing Honduras. The ride was
very hard and only four riders completed every stage, Hector and I
being two of the four. The other two were Hensel from Esquipulas,
Guatemala and Ana from San Salvador, El Salvador
The ride was very well organized and we were treated like kings: the
best hotels, lunches and dinners. Each morning the ride would start at
a different city's center, there were spectators and mayors' speeches.
The ride would end in a different city center and we would get a
handcrafted necklace or trinket commemorating the day's ride. The
organizers brought our baggage from hotel to hotel in different cities
for us.
The first day was the hardest as we climbed for hours. Hensel was
leading with Hector, myself, and two other Guatemalan riders a bit
behind. After perhaps an hour and a half of climbing, I could look down
into the valley and see at least a half hour's worth of trail we had
just ridden, and there was not a single rider on it, the five of us
were so far ahead. After about seven hours with big climbs and some
treacherous descents with loose rocks, Hensel finished first, 28
minutes ahead of Hector. Three miles from the finish, I was third, but
then I got a bad leg cramp and the two other Guatemaltecos passed me, so I finished fifth but just a couple of minutes out of third.
The second day was the most rideable and easiest. Hensel, Hector, and
I traded places for the lead several times. First Hensel lead, then he
had to fix a flat tire and we passed him. Then he passed us back but
took a wrong turn and we passed him again. Hector finished first, then
Hensel and then me, all within about four minutes of each other. Nobody else was close. Ana and a couple of other riders finished about 40 minutes later.
The last day was an insane climb. It took me 4 hours and 50 minutes to
reach the peak at 7600 feet altitude. That was all climbing (except
about seven minutes total)with a lot of pushing, followed by a short
fast descent. Another Guatemalteco finished first, with Hector second.
Hensel was fifth about 20 minutes after Hector, having suffered four
more flat tires. Another rider on his team had six flats this last
day. I was slow and finished aways back but my goal was to finish so
that is what I paced myself for. Loads of riders quit and support
vehicles, loaded with riders who had given up, passed me all day on the jeep trails.
I rode a hardtail that I built up while I was in Connecticut this summer, using an inexpensive 7005 aluminum frame that I bought from Nashbar (with 100mm Reba forks and tubeless tires). I have been very happy with this bike, everything works great and it rides great, even though it weighs about four pounds more than the megabuck Merlin XLM that I have been riding. I posted some photos of the Nashbar-frame bike on this forum after I built it in June or July of this year.
I am just posting this now because they put up a load of photos at http://www.esquipulas.com.gt/galeria/categories.php?cat_id=263&sessionid=ce19b169f2cef86e6a1335b86bc23810
There are close-ups of me on pages 4, 28, and 31. I am wearing the white jersey with the horse behind me on page 4.
This ride went through Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador where these countries border each other, near the mountain Montecristo. We never crossed a border at an official border crossing, we had permission to cross on jeep trails as this ride was sponsored by tourism bureaus from each country.
As I am now living in Honduras and have been riding with the Honduran MTB club, I rode representing Honduras. We were supposed to have four riders, two being a father and son. But when our team crossed the border into El Salvador for the start, Immigration would not let the 15 year old son cross with his father, because he did not have a signed notarized letter of permission from his mother. That sounds like something that would happen in the U.S., not in these countries where pretty much anything goes, as long as you are not hurting someone else. So anyway we lost two riders, and just my friend Hector and I represented Honduras.
All together there were about eighty riders, all the others represented Guatemala or El Salvador. But not every rider rode every day.
Hector and I did a great job of representing Honduras. The ride was
very hard and only four riders completed every stage, Hector and I
being two of the four. The other two were Hensel from Esquipulas,
Guatemala and Ana from San Salvador, El Salvador
The ride was very well organized and we were treated like kings: the
best hotels, lunches and dinners. Each morning the ride would start at
a different city's center, there were spectators and mayors' speeches.
The ride would end in a different city center and we would get a
handcrafted necklace or trinket commemorating the day's ride. The
organizers brought our baggage from hotel to hotel in different cities
for us.
The first day was the hardest as we climbed for hours. Hensel was
leading with Hector, myself, and two other Guatemalan riders a bit
behind. After perhaps an hour and a half of climbing, I could look down
into the valley and see at least a half hour's worth of trail we had
just ridden, and there was not a single rider on it, the five of us
were so far ahead. After about seven hours with big climbs and some
treacherous descents with loose rocks, Hensel finished first, 28
minutes ahead of Hector. Three miles from the finish, I was third, but
then I got a bad leg cramp and the two other Guatemaltecos passed me, so I finished fifth but just a couple of minutes out of third.
The second day was the most rideable and easiest. Hensel, Hector, and
I traded places for the lead several times. First Hensel lead, then he
had to fix a flat tire and we passed him. Then he passed us back but
took a wrong turn and we passed him again. Hector finished first, then
Hensel and then me, all within about four minutes of each other. Nobody else was close. Ana and a couple of other riders finished about 40 minutes later.
The last day was an insane climb. It took me 4 hours and 50 minutes to
reach the peak at 7600 feet altitude. That was all climbing (except
about seven minutes total)with a lot of pushing, followed by a short
fast descent. Another Guatemalteco finished first, with Hector second.
Hensel was fifth about 20 minutes after Hector, having suffered four
more flat tires. Another rider on his team had six flats this last
day. I was slow and finished aways back but my goal was to finish so
that is what I paced myself for. Loads of riders quit and support
vehicles, loaded with riders who had given up, passed me all day on the jeep trails.
I rode a hardtail that I built up while I was in Connecticut this summer, using an inexpensive 7005 aluminum frame that I bought from Nashbar (with 100mm Reba forks and tubeless tires). I have been very happy with this bike, everything works great and it rides great, even though it weighs about four pounds more than the megabuck Merlin XLM that I have been riding. I posted some photos of the Nashbar-frame bike on this forum after I built it in June or July of this year.
