We were looking for a place to ride on Sunday and we made a poll on our local forum, the wining choice was to pre ride the course of the "Clasico Pirata" in a town on the south west of the island called Cabo Rojo.
We left San Juan at 5:00am, made a breakfast stop mid way and by 8:00am we arrived to the parking lot. We could not see any marks on the area and luckily I had the race organizer (Jim) phone number, I called him and he explained the course to me and told me the reasons for the removal of the marks on the course. He noticed that I was very confused (not familiar with the area) and invited us to join his group ride. lucky for us we were close to them.
The group was set to go when we arrived but they were kind enough to wait for us to get ready. Also on the group was my friend and coworker at the LBS Carlitos who has taken along for the ride a first time rider.
I can't tell you the names of the different trails we rode but I can tell you that we loved the first singletrack, from it we connected with the race course and made it to the first pit stop.
From there we headed to the Cabo Rojo light house, Jim showed us his "secret" trail to get there, stopped for pics and headed down to Combate beach.
From the we made it to Combate and stopped for another pit stop.
From there we connected again with the race couse and back to the parking lot.
After a ~5 hour single speed ride we were tired but happy, the trail, views and the group made the 2.5hr trip (one way) worth the drive.
The newb suffered during the ride but the other girls on the group helped her a lot bu giving her food and drinks when she needed them the most. For a newb it was a long ride but she was able to complete the ride and told us that she will be back.
I would like to thank Jim for taking us along for the ride, we really enjoyed it and will be back for the race; this time Pepe will tag along.
A lot more pics
We left San Juan at 5:00am, made a breakfast stop mid way and by 8:00am we arrived to the parking lot. We could not see any marks on the area and luckily I had the race organizer (Jim) phone number, I called him and he explained the course to me and told me the reasons for the removal of the marks on the course. He noticed that I was very confused (not familiar with the area) and invited us to join his group ride. lucky for us we were close to them.
The group was set to go when we arrived but they were kind enough to wait for us to get ready. Also on the group was my friend and coworker at the LBS Carlitos who has taken along for the ride a first time rider.
I can't tell you the names of the different trails we rode but I can tell you that we loved the first singletrack, from it we connected with the race course and made it to the first pit stop.
From there we headed to the Cabo Rojo light house, Jim showed us his "secret" trail to get there, stopped for pics and headed down to Combate beach.
From the we made it to Combate and stopped for another pit stop.
From there we connected again with the race couse and back to the parking lot.
After a ~5 hour single speed ride we were tired but happy, the trail, views and the group made the 2.5hr trip (one way) worth the drive.
The newb suffered during the ride but the other girls on the group helped her a lot bu giving her food and drinks when she needed them the most. For a newb it was a long ride but she was able to complete the ride and told us that she will be back.
I would like to thank Jim for taking us along for the ride, we really enjoyed it and will be back for the race; this time Pepe will tag along.
A lot more pics