24 Feb – 24 Mar 2013 El Salvador and beyond



Vanderkittens Ruth, Kate, Liza, Me, Jessica, Starla, and Jono at the Vuelta Ciclista a El Salvador Team Presentation.

One of many coconut vendors

In our official start to the 2013 cycling season, six Vanderkittens, me, Jessica, Kate, Liza, Ruth, and Starla, along with awesome team manager Jono, headed off to race the Vuelta Ciclista a El Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, about the size of Massachusetts or Wales. Our adventure began as we emerged bleary-eyed from a midnight flight to arrive early morning at Comalapa International Airport.

We were met at the airport by a friendly Salvadorian named Robert from Thule, our Salvadorian business sponsor for the tour. Robert had a modest grasp of English—which was good because we were armed with dusty memories of high school Spanish classes and Jono and Liza’s fluent Italian.

Abundant coconut palms

Robert drove us past row after row of vendors selling endless stacks of coconuts from makeshift thatched-roof shelters onto the death-defying experience that is Salvadorian roads to the capitol city, San Salvador, and our home for the next two weeks, the Hilton Princess.

Beautiful views on our seaside ride.

The most standout feature of San Salvador, aside from razor wire atop every possible vertical structure, was the preponderance of armed guards, usually sporting some sort of assault rifle casually draped over one shoulder. These guards could be found outside every possible establishment: gas stations, hotels, restaurants, convenience stores, shopping malls—pretty much everywhere. Despite researching the topic, I have been unsuccessful in ascertaining the reason for the presence of these guards. Perhaps worth considering: El Salvador does sit an un-admirable third in the world murder rate rankings. I’m uncertain whether this statistic is a reason for the guards, or as a result of them. Happily, we did not witness any murders while visiting.



Wilfredo, Jono, and Robert.

We took the day to recover and relax from our night of unsatisfyingly cramped and truncated sleep before venturing out the next morning for a spin to clear our travel-congested legs. Here we met our driver for the duration of our stay, Wilfredo. Now Wilfredo spoke not a word of English and his knowledge of bike racing was nil. We had an awkward beginning.

Relaxing by the pool.

Add to this a further challenge: cycling in El Salvador is difficult. Traffic in El Salvador moves rapidly, at times randomly, with horn use quite generous, perhaps a requisite component of life preservation on Salvadorian roads as it appeared that drivers did not seem to realise that other road users were present without a healthy blast of the horn to alert them. I don’t think a collision with a cyclist would be noticed save for the bump felt as the offending vehicle rolled over the fallen rider. We decided that perhaps it was safer to ride at night with lower traffic volumes, without lights so as to remain unseen by drivers, which we observed numerous very brave Salvadorians doing.

Body surfing in the waves.

To avoid our untimely demise, Wilfredo drove us to a lovely road along the coast where beautiful beaches graced the shore and traffic volumes were slightly less terrifying. After our ride, where we thoroughly enjoyed the warm air and stunning surrounds, Wilfredo told us that a lunch had been organised for us and would we like to go—that’s the gist anyway after our several humorous attempts at translation. We piled in the Thule truck and drove for what seemed like hours along a bumpy dirt road past lots of dogs and cattle and people all milling about, eventually coming upon a lovely villa nestled in a forest of coconut palms where we enjoyed a relaxing dip in the pool, a splash in the waves, and an impressively enormous bowl of pasta.

Receiving roses at the start of the tour.

Over the next several days we raced 3 one-day races and a seven-day tour with just about every day finishing with or otherwise incorporating a ridiculously long climb up some ridiculously steep volcano, of which there is a notable overabundance in El Salvador (20 all up). We finished the racing with eight top-ten finishes and had a ton of fun doing it. Ruth was our star finisher, consistently placing well each day. Liza earned our top placing of the trip from an impressive breakaway, and Starla showed her grit with unrelenting aggressive riding throughout the tour, and perhaps a bit of hill-climbing form from this would be sprinter.

Unfortunately our tour was inhibited by a stomach bug that took Kate out of the tour after a promising ninth-place finish in Stage 1, and knocked Jessica out of contention after a top finish up an exceptionally gruelling climb in Stage 4. And of course, me being a lame duck teammate was singularly unhelpful.

With Robert at Thule headquarters.

My tour was of little note, except perhaps that, happily, my fitness improved markedly from beginning to end, although remaining well short of the level I had hoped to bring to the tour. Being hampered by the precipitous decline in my health the previous week, my main goal was simply riding each day so as to keep my recovery headed in the positive direction, the alternative being to remain at the hotel on the fitness room exercise bike.

Me and Jessica at the front of the peleton.

Despite some challenges, we had a lot of good times, improved our Spanish vocabulary, achieved our goal of acquiring valuable some UCI points, and thoroughly enjoyed the daily brilliant blue skies and warm (at times hot!) temperatures. Wilfredo turned out to be highly skilled at navigating the chaos of Salvadorian traffic and we were the envy of all the teams from the speed (and relative safety) at which he delivered us to and from each stage. By the end of our stay Wilfredo had acquired an impressive number of English words and phrases and a working knowledge of cycle racing that surpasses that of many competitors. After two weeks, it was difficult to say goodbye.  

Eating in at the hotel.

Our stay at an end, we once again headed along the rows and rows of coconut vendors to El Salvador airport for a return flight to San Francisco. There I left my teammates and continued on the Chicago where, after another night on a plane and 20 hours of travel, I arrived at my parents’ house where I stayed for all of 24 hours before heading back to the airport, this time with my mom, for a flight to Providence, Rhode Island, on the US east coast.



Liza very excited about coconuts.

The first few days in Rhode Island were occupied by a conference focusing d an organism that I research called didymo. Didymo is an alga that is an invasive and unwanted pest in New Zealand rivers and lakes and is becoming an increasing problem in areas of the US and Canada, Chile, and some parts of Europe. The remainder of the week my mom and I spent exploring Providence, the capitol of Rhode Island; Newport, a beach town on the south coast of the state—although, being winter, temps weren’t exactly conducive to beach-type activities, and Boston, one of the oldest cities in the US and the site of numerous significant events in American history.

I followed this with a week visiting with my parents, and am about to head back to the San Francisco area for some slightly warmer weather in which to work on continuing my recovery, regaining fitness, and preparing for a kick ass season with my fellow Vanderkitten teammates.



Before the start of the final race.

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