Santa Ana to Limon

First stage after a well deserved rest day, stage 6 was 175km from Santa Ana to Limon on the Atlantic coast.

By Cory Wallace

We waved Emile goodbye as he was hopping a jet plane back to Canada and we were headed 175 km down the highway to the port town of Limon on the Carribean coast. It was a weird stage as we raced flat out for 40 km through big crowds in downtown San Jose before hitting a gentle climb into a headwind up to 1600 M and into the rainforests of Braulio Carillo National Park. Here we stopped racing for an hour as they decided to neutralize the 40 km descent as a thick fog, slippery road surface and poles in the middle of the road would've surely lead to chaos. Once down the sketchy descent in the inspiring rainforest, the race resumed with 100 km of flat roads to Limon. The pack was hammering this section and at times the rain came down like waterfalls as we trudged towards the finish line in the sketchiest town of Costa Rica. Our teammate Stephen was in the top 5 with 200 meters to go before jamming his chain and losing his chance at glory on the day.

Right after the finish we took a look around at our surroundings and headed straight to our beach hotel 5 km out of town for the night. It was a neat little hotel perched in the rainforest above the crashing carribean sea below. At this hotel things got interesting as the leading Yellow jersey team and the team of the two time defending champion Juan Carlos Rojas got into a brawl after dinner. You'd expect this at a hockey game but generally not in the evening after a bike race. These guys were serious though and guys ended up in the hospital, cops were called in and it was outright mayhem. 

Video report
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