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Peter Weiss

Incredible Race In Colourful Costa Rica 😃

Photo by Red Estudiantil

If you know who I am – you definitely know that I have a very sweet spot for Latin America. And I think I just found one of my new favourite countries and races; and I’ve seen a fair bit by now!

This race is called Cerro El Dragon which means the Dragons Mountain. It’s called so, as that’s the name of the central mountain.

The race has been around for a couple of years and I have been wanting to go to since I heard about it first time. Lucky for me, I have a good friends around the world and my Costa Rican friend Felipe Echandi (who I met at another incredible race in Peru, called El Inka Hard Enduro) was very helpful in getting me set up for the race. The race isn’t all that complicated to get set up for to be honest – it was a simple 1 day race and it took me 3 hours from start to finish.

So if you are interested in trying the Dragon race out some day, here’s what you should prepare for:

  1. First of all, you’re gonna want to rent a bike. For that, there’s a couple of different options, and the one I know about is called Ultimate Rides CR. I don’t know their prices, but hit them up and ask. The owners name is Heiner and super nice!
  2. Buy your flights and bring some riding gear that allows for a lot of wind intake – Costa Rica is a warm place on earth but it honestly didn’t bother me at all. I LOVE warm weather! But I know of riders who complained a bit about the heat and I can only imagine that they struggled more than I did and in effect, developed a lot more heat.
  3. Bring a GPS. I currently use Garmin eTrex22 and for years, I used the Garmin eTrex20 or eTrex22x. Any of those are phenomenal and do the job. If there’s room in the budget, then bring an extra and ideally run one of those double mounts from J-Mount. I didn’t have a double mount, so I just ran a single on the handlebar and an extra in my backpack.
  4. Take some time to enjoy the country. It’s so beautiful and I would definitely recommend spending another handful of days exploring the country!

I would rank this race as one of the best race-experiences out there and I doubt there’s many races that can do better than this one. I am not getting paid to say this – it’s 100% on me and my subjective review. I loved the trails, the difficulty was just perfect for me, the mountains are unreal beautiful and the people very very hospitable and welcoming. I don’t like the races where you are pushing and pulling more than you ride and I found that I was riding almost all the time – a balance a lot of organisers/trackmanagers get wrong. But these guys nailed it and I can’t wait to be back in 2021.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them below in the Disqus (log in with your facebook details) and I’d be more than happy to answer them!

Up high!

Peter Weiss

Photos by Enduro 506.

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