Race Report | Santa Cruz Andes Pacifico 2015 – Day 4
Yesterday was a great day at Andes Pacifico. We had scheduled six special stages that were access pedaling. Due to the geography of Matanzas we knew that the special stages will be well pedaled and shorter than the previous day. With this fact in mind riders got prepared for a day of 43 kms between links and special stages.
Fabien Barel had the race lead by 30 seconds, but he knew he had to press tired because Nico Lau is stronger pedaling, in fact he even cut down the knobs on his rear tire significantly to help him roll faster.
But yesterday luck was not on Barel’s side, in the second stage of the day, Fabien pick up some loose tape in his rear wheel so he had to stop to untangle. Because of this he lost use of the three highest gears and some plastic melted in his rear disc.
So far everything Fabien kept pushing but it was not enough as the end of the day it surpassed by Nico Lau by nearly a minute, this made Nico Lau the winner of the Santa Cruz Andes Pacifico 2015! Third was Chris Johnston who just a year ago in the 2014 Andes Pacifico broke his elbow.
Among the top ten we had a 3 Chileans, Pedro Burns, the fastest Chilean Junior was the best of all Chileans placed in 7th place. Ninth came Milciades Jaque who confirms the excellent level that is showing. In tenth Francisco Martinez did a tremendous race, actually yesterday he finished with fourth fastest time of the day!!
In total riders descended 9,689 meters, they did more than two hours of special stages and they pedal more than 132 kilometers. With this Andes Pacifico has become one of the most important Enduro Races by stages in the world with an excellent organization, very good level of riders and the best track and geographies of Chile for Mountain Bike.
We want to thank our sponsors: Santa Cruz, EVOC, Ssangyong, Cerveza Kross, Columbia, Viñas de Colchagua, Lo Barnechea, Hotel Surazo, La Parva, Olas de Matanzas, Antawaya, KTM, Mountain Works, KMP, Cycle World and Master Bikes.
Words: Eduardo de Solminihac Photos: Claudio Olguin(#1,4,5,10,11), Dave Trumpore(#6-8) and Gary Perkin(#2,3,9)
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