November 17, 2007 (Aquiares, Costa Rica) – Waking up at 4am in the morning and racing at 6:30 a.m. seems like normal now. Average sleep per night is 5-6 hours, and with luck we get a nap in the afternoon – usually not difficult as we are done by noon everyday.

Riding bikes over hill and dale on five hours sleep, racing till your legs want to drop off, and doing it again and again – how do we continue doing this? I keep going on waiting for my opportunity and for me it’s the last day, the flat day, the day the ‘big men’ dream of.

Personally the descent into the human called Andreas is now complete. I know who I am, what I can handle and what I can’t, much of this has been like therapy for the mind and the body. I’ve been doing it for years – breaking my mind down, breaking my body down and rebuilding – hopefully make them both better and stronger.

I knew before arriving here that day one would suck and I would suck, but that I’d get through it and day two would get better. But it’s an unknown this year if day three would be even better. And day four is what I am here for – an opportunity for results on a course that finally doesn’t have 10,000 feet of climbing.

So the ‘big men’ will have their day. We must be patient though and like the sprinters in the Tour de France we must pass the mountains to contest the grand finale.

I am, and have always been between 170-175 lbs. That’s at the top end of the spectrum for mountain biking, a sport primarily associated with big climbs. Calibrating what is possible for the ‘big boys’ is what I have specialized in. I have blown to the moon a hundred times over the past 18 years, and knowing what one can and can’t do is important. It’s also fun to mess with the smaller guy’s minds and do what they least expect, and that’s climb well.

As I wait for day four’s 120km of flat, I still must get there. As I described day three was another up, up and mud stage, the preeminent facets of the nature of Costa Rica and La Ruta. Today’s adventure up the side of the Volcano Irazu was 35km of dirt, gravel and paved climbing that culminated in a 30km descent, including the usual fare of horse poop, cows, cow poop, river crossings, rocks and epic mud which are the norm here.

Getting started on day three of a stage race is hard as one would expect and today was no exception. Picture aching knees and sticky muscles that feel tangibly dehydrated, and permanently wrinkled hands and feet from the humidity.

We rolled out up a paved road – the first 8km were neutral, or controlled. The funny thing was that by kilometer 4, everyone but the top 20 were already strung out and dropped, whatever, we still have to get through the day. I climbed and climbed, today like yesterday I was with Kris Sneddon (Can) Kona early in the day, but by mid-climb he began to pull away.

Soon the figure of Max Plaxton (Can) Rocky Mt./Haywood loomed out of the clouds apparently a bit ailing and tired from the big efforts over the last two days. Neither Max nor Kris have granny gears. In a world of nasty climbs I don’t know how they do it.

Near the top of the climb having caught Kris’ group and dropped them I entered the descent in 10th, soon to be lost and off course. This wasn’t really as frustrating as you might think. Having proved my point, gotten stronger through the event and stuck to my game plan, I was happy. I got lost once more on the descent, suffered a flat and still finished a descent 23rd.

At the end of the day, it’s about the experience, the feeling and the process of getting there. Today was all of those and the camaraderie of the combined misery shared with 462 people. The old adage “misery loves company” must still be true, at least for the people in my world. I can only hope that tomorrow like today goes according to the ‘big man plan’.

For the majority of the categories things did not change today – while the Veterans lead did change hands it remained with a Canadian. Sandy Mitchell (Gerick Cycle) from Nelson took over from Tony Routley of Team Whistler while Mike Charuk also Team Whistler remained in the lead for the Masters B Men. The women’s race was decided on the downhill, as Susan Haywood (USA) Trek/VW extended her lead over Louise Kobin (USA) Sho Air/Rock and Road. Kudo’s to Cory Wallace (Team Jasper) for haveing an amazing ride.

We apologize, but due to technical difficulties, we were unable to post Dre’s Day 3 Report yesterday as planned.