Hello everybody,

Guanaride 07' has finished. Unfortunately I sustained a serious fall the very first day of the race, only two minutes after I started the steepest section of the downhill. Fortunately I ended up with nasty bruises and some cuts in my left leg and arm, but no broken bones. I got on my bike again that day and managed to finish the first stage.

Thanks to the kind assistance of the local Suunto dealer who took me to hospital immediately after I finished the stage, I was able to continuo racing all the remaining four stages. Although I was far from winning, I managed to improve my overall time by a good margin compared to the one of last year. It might have been the mummy look (due to the bandages that wrapped my arm and leg) that proved to make me faster.

Despite of the fact that it poured down in San Jose the week before the race, the northern region of Guanacaste remained dryer than last year. There was less mud on the way and less water on the rivers we crossed along 400 km ridden during five days. What remained constant is the heat (you literally sweat buckets while waiting on the starting line already at 7 am). It was also nice to find once again the astonishing Pacific coastline, wonderful nature, magnificent wildlife and kindness of the 'Ticos'.

As on last year, I used my valuable Suunto t6 and X9i to record the race logs. I can't wait to download the info into my training software and Google Earth. I particularly look forward to compare the t6 logs with the ones of last year to learn more about my improvement. This will be done soon, but before I am off to Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize and Guatemala to learn more about the landscape and culture of this wonderful region of the world.

Hasta la vista!
Manu

Next July 26, I will race again in Guanaride. This is an endurance race that takes place on the beautiful Guanacaste and Punta Arena provinces of Costa Rica, placed on the northwest of the country. During five days, more than 400 km have to be ridden through the different natural settings that Costa Rica has to offer as the beach, the mountains, the forest and hidden tracks in the Peninsula. This year's race has incorporated one more day of competition than last year. I will use Suunto T6 with wireless heart belt and Bike Pod to gather useful performance data during the race.

Costa Rica holds five percent of the world's biodiversity. Nature has provided to this country unique and astonishing natural reserves, making it a very attractive setting for riders who want to discover beautiful Central American landscapes while at the same time, ride and finish one of the toughest mountain bike endurance races in America.

Once the race is finished, I will travel south of Costa Rica with the race organizers and photographer to discover other interesting mountain bike tracks. We are planning to spend around 10 days on our ‘discovery’ trip. I will use Suunto X9i to gather useful position information and then spot those tracks in Google Earth.

Adios!!