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Inside La Ruta: Chasing Tinker

Riding shotgun with the hardest working man in Costa Rica, Tinker Juarez's support man and Cannondale veteran wrench Troy Laffey

By Mike Cushionbury

It's no secret that at the mighty La Ruta de los Conquistadores that local riders have an advantage. Besides training on the hideous trails and dirt roads for months beforehand, nearly every Costa Rican has a chase vehicle (and in the case of race winner Federico Ramirez, two-a car for the roads and a moto for the trails). This year, in an attempt to even the playing field Cannondale sent its team mechanic Troy Laffey, a 15-year veteran who has eight seasons with Cannondale.
Ladies and gentlemen...Troy Laffey.
Troy's primary job was to support Tinker Juarez (read an interview with Tinker about the race) on his podium quest. Troy's secondary rider was Mona-Vie/Cannondale's Jason Sager (who finished 8th overall) and finally, before and after each stage he cared for the entire Mona-Vie team. Washing bikes, turning wrenches and handling check-in and checkout for about 10 Cannondales.
A hundred bikes, one hose.
Troy's day started at about 3 am every day. He would transport Tinker's bike to the start line and pick-up the Mona-Vie bikes from bike check. Once all the bikes were accounted for he'd begin making repairs and adjustments. Besides caring for team bikes, Troy never said no to any other hapless soul who needed help, often handling a lineup of riders with bikes in various states of disarray right up until the start gun went off. He did everything from pumping up tires and lubing chains to switching out derailleur cables and repacking bearings. After the stage he'd wash every bike, sometimes wash shoes and set about making more repairs well into the evening.
Starbucks, Costa Rican style.
After the start things got interesting. Troy's task was to chase Tinker across the country of Costa Rica handling feeds, carrying extra clothes and being ready to make an on-the-fly repair. I joined Troy for three days as his assistant and, besides seeing some amazing country, experienced some of the most extreme driving abilities of all time (Troy fancies himself a rally driver of sorts and this video of us driving proves it). Troy rented a diesel Nissan pre-runner and had new off-road tires installed for a good reason. We sped down dirt roads, through villages and made many a pass on the right when there was no room.
Comin' in hot. Don't try at home.
The promoters don't provide directions for chase vehicles so often we'd just go east and hope for the best. Somehow we found the checkpoints of just did a hand-up on the road. It was insane, fast paced and crazy-and an experience I'll never forget.
And oh by the way, Tinker finished a very solid fifth.

Inside La Ruta Stage 1: Help Me, I'm Lost

A gnarly course, a bunk wrong turn and mud up to the eyeballs make for a less than stellar start to the 2007 La Ruta de los Conquistadores mountain bike stage race for our race blogger Crush.

Words by Mike Cushionbury, photos by Matt Ohran

Today's epic 1st stage is in the books and it was not without more drama than I'm willing to deal with. After cresting the first major climb in the top 30 the field cruised to the first major Cush-cluster of the day: soupy, stinky snotty mud with rocks and plenty of hiking. Being a born and raised SoCal boy,I don't do mud. As apparent by the fact that just about everyone went by me. Once back to the comfort of dry dirt I spat the dummy like never before.
CAPTION: Ya, it's really freakin' steep. And slick. Not sure what this guy is so happy about?
Somehow I humped my way over the final major climb-a 25K road affair and was looking at a reasonable descent to the finish. Didn't happen. I, along with about 30 other riders were funneled through a horse pasture and into a brutal hike-a-bike over an extra credit mountain by a course official. Andre Hestler of the Rocky Mountain team (who went the right way) informed me that we were, at the point of making the wrong turn, basically at the finish. I was broken to pieces, pissed at whoever put in a major hike up a mountain right at the end of the day and thanks to this little sidetrack I added about 2 hours to my time.

CAPTION: No matter how much it hurts the course has breathtaking views when the weather is primo.
At least a few of my Mona-Vie teammates did the same thing. In fact Thomas Spannring admitted he was the first guy to go through and actually opened the gate. Nothing like teamwork in a stage race.

As for my bike, the '08 Scalpel has worked flawlessly even in these, shall we say, uncomfortable conditions. I love the new Lefty fork and the new rear suspension is a huge improvement compared to last year.

Now, being a seasoned racer I have a huge collection of excuses as to why I sucked today. Let me run a few up the flagpole: I got lost; I'm tired from a full season of racing that's included some very big and very long events this year with good results. I'm also 37-years old and I don't need this shit anymore. I was going to retire from racing this Saturday after stage four, now I've decided that move is effective immediately. I've been working on the Buyer's Guide issues of Bicycling and Mountain Bike (and they look really good).
CAPTION: The big men on the team can't believe they made it up all those hills so fast.
I'm a born and bred SoCal child, it's all I know. The wife, however, is using the time while I'm away to buy a ranch house in Pennsylvania. So when I get back the cats and I are apparently moving (that's a life event you know, and I love blaming the better half for my failures.) I really, really hate mud. Take your pick of the excuses and feel free to use one yourself if you wish.

To really find out what happened check out JasonSager.com as well as MonavieCannondale.com, the real racers write that stuff. I might be the team mechanic tomorrow.