December 21, 2013 (Liberia, Costa Rica) – Canada’s Jean-Michel Lachance (Can) 1% For The Planet won yesterday’s 156.92km Stage 4 from Chachagua San Ramon to Liberia at the Vuelta Kolbi a Costa Rica making up for Stage 3 when he was “…completely empty.” Read Gavriel Epstein’s and Lachance’s reports below…

Gavriel Epstein Stage 4 Report
Today’s stage turned out to be very difficult. No long climbs but tons of short ones add up and it did, to almost 7,500 feet of climbing. I was involved in a crash early on in the stage which forced me to use a lot of energy to get back to the field, about 20km into the stage. Then I spent the next 60km yo-yo-ing back and forth out the back of the peloton until we finally descended onto the main Highway. It didn’t get any easier though as the pace really kicked up in the crosswinds. We were in the gutter for about 30km, but I felt more comfortable in the gutter that on the climbs and was able to finish with the field. But what really made my day was crossing the finish line and hearing that my teammate Jean Michel had won today’s stage. – Gavy

Jean-Michel Lachance Stage 4 Report
I am very happy with the stage win ! The day before, I had a “tourista” and was completly empty, not able to eat before and during the race and lost roughly 1-min / km in the last 20km of the race ! After the race tough, I was able to eat again and was feeling much better the next morning.

Having done the race in years before, I knew the finish and was expecting a field sprint in which I was hoping for a strong finish. Tough, the race course was much different with lots of climbing to get to the finish town of Liberia. After 20km to go, I saw teh GC guys attacking and I figured it was a important move to mark and I jumped hard to bridge across.

It was pretty hard only to follow the group in the rolling hills as we quickly gained 10-min on the main peloton. With JPS team present in big numbers, they did the most work in the group (16 riders) and I was able to save my legs as much as I could . With 9km to go, we caught Marconi Duran from Coopenae who rode very strong throughout the stage forcing JPS to chase.

From that moment, all cards played in my favour as I was the fastest rider in the group. I stayed calm until the finish and let the others started the sprint unlike stage one where I lost a big opportunity of wearing the yellow jersey. I then launched my sprint from 5th and passed all riders to raise my arms in the air for a fraction of a second – so many journalists and photographers to dodge after the line.

I am very happy with that result and will be wearing the “regularidad” turtle jersey ! Stage 5 is flat and I will try to comfort my advance in the classification.

Results
1. Jean-Michel Lachance (Can) 1% For The Planet 3:58:32
2. Fabricio Quiros (Crc) BCR-Pizza Hut-Powerade
3. Juan Rojas (Crc) JPS-Giant

26. Gavriel Epstein (Can) 1% For The Planet  9:58
34. Ryan Roth (Can) 1% For The Planet
37. Anton Varabei (Can) 1% For The Planet
51. Julien Gagné (Can) 1% For The Planet    
70. Étienne Samson (Can) 1% For The Planet     37:52

GC after Stage 4

1. Juan Rojas (Crc) JPS-Giant     14:00:20
2. Elias Vega (Crc) JPS-Giant     1:36
3. Juan Mata (Crc) Agricenter Coronado Hotel Los Lagos 1:58

24. Julien Gagné (Can) 1% For The Planet     13:48
35. Jean-Michel Lachance (Can) 1% For The Planet 15:41
43. Anton Varabei (Can) 1% For The Planet 18:03
45. Ryan Roth (Can) 1% For The Planet 20:18
64. Gavriel Epstein (Can) 1% For The Planet  29:09
71. Étienne Samson (Can) 1% For The Planet     1:21:08

Full results here.