With barely a month to go until the start of the self-styled “toughest mountain bike race in the world”, some big names are lining up to take a crack at notorious Costa Rican stage race La Ruta de los Conquistadores. It’s hard to find anyone who’s done every single one of the really, really hard races in the world, so whether La Ruta really is the toughest is hard to establish, but certainly the numbers – four days, 377km (234 miles), 14,000m (46,000ft) of climbing – are fairly daunting. Add in unpredictable weather, often-ludicrous steepness, trails that aren’t exactly “all-weather” and of course the legendary not-entirely-there bridge crossings and you’ve got something potentially quite unpleasant on your hands.
Read more at the official site: www.adventurerace.com
