The final two stages of the Trans Mexicana were a great challange for all the riders. Stage 5 was highlighted by a huge climb to open the stage, then a 21 km (2200m vertical) downhill and then finally a 5 km hike a bike section down a river canyon. Lupillo and myself went into this section around 10 minutes ahead of 3rd place Travis Macey before quickly being overcome by the Adventure Racer. At the start of the day the race organizers suggested we send a set of running shoes with them to change into at the start of this river section. Lupillo and I figured wed save the effort of chanign shoes and try to travers this section in our carbon fiber cycling shoes which turned out to be funniest home video worthy as we slipped and slid down the canyon while Macey trotted ahead in his hikers. At the highpoint, I was up on the shore tangled up in thorns and jungle vines as I tried to avoid the river and when I looked back i saw Lupillo sliding on his back getting swept downstream with his bike floating ahead of him. Meanwhile Macey was hopping rocks and running like an Indian towards the finish line. Bloodied, cut and completely soaked, Lupillo and I finally crossed the finish line, 7 hrs after we started, with myself coming in 2nd 1:30 behind Macey and Lupillo another 3:30 minutes further behind.
Stage 6
Going into the final stage of the race Lupillo was leading the overall GC by 5:03 over myself and 43:02 over Macey in third. My plan was to use the 1200 m net elvevation loss of the day to my advantage and try and gap Lupillo on the decent and hopefully make up the 5:03 I trailed on him. Quickly gaining a minute advantage just over 2 km into the decent I was ripping until I came around a corner to see a pickup full of Mexicans headed my way. Having not seen a vehicle in the last 30 km of decents in the last couple of days I was a little suprised by this and slammed on my breaks. The truck also slammed on his and drove his front end into the ditch leaving his back end hanging out which I bounced off of and somehow managed to stay upright. Pretty stoked on not becoming a Mexican hood ornament I continued on my decent a little rattled but still determined to make up some more time on Lupillo. Deciding it would be wiser not to cut the switchbacks as sharply I crashed hard on the next corner as I tried to adjust my decending techniques to allow for the possibilty of more trucks. Bloodied and now implanted with gravel I was soon rejoined by Lupillo and Travis at the bottom of the hill with around 23 km to the finish. At 17 km to go I put in a last ditch effort to break away from my two riding partners and quickly managed to gap both of them on a small incline. Riding full tilt with the help of some dog chases I came across the finish line in 2 hrs 47 minutes and then began waiting for the other riders. Lupillo riding with a hole in his knee from a crash on Day 4 was determined to save his overall GC lead and came across the line 4:41 behind myself meening he had saved his race lead by just 22 seconds, enough to claim the $ 2000 first prize and $ 4000 BMW mountain bike. Pretty tired from trashing each other over the last week of riding, Travis and myself tore out of racing clothes and headed for the pacific oceann just 50 m away. Meanwhile Lupillo was being shipped off to the hospital to patch up the hole in his knee and to be told not to touch a bike for at least 3 weeks. With the first version of the Trans Mexicana coming to a close, the 30 riders and 62 support staff celebrated with a Mexican feast and race videos and then we all parted ways to our homes across the globe.