111,2km – 962m up – 1181m down – 4278kcal
The night in the bunk beds was quiet and uninterrupted. It was raining all night, but stopped in the morning, as usual in the volcano region – giving us a dry ride through the last parts of the rain forest. After a short climb out of Bijagua we dived into a nice valley until lunch stop.
Lunch this time was in a wind sheltered picnic side. However Cristiano managed to organize an electric fan, so that we got our usual lunch break blow 
(just kidding).
After lunch the rough start started with a steep climb on a 20km gravel stretch. In Santa Cecilia we had our best Coke stop so far; not for coke, but for a perfect Costa Rican coffee and fresh fruit juice. The last 30km to La 
Cruz were a blast. Constant tail wind and temperatures at about 29°C made me finish these final kilometers with an average of 30km/h. My left Achilles tendon gives me a bit of a pain, but Sarah (on the left), our doc, takes good care of me 
La Cruz is already located above a b
ay on the Pacific Ocean, only 19km away from the border to Nicaragua. As we arrived very early in the afternoon we had lot of time to go into town and do some shopping.
The sunset view into the Pacific Ocean from the hotel finished the day followed by a ‘rice & beans’ dinner at a neighborhood restaurant.
In the afternoon we had the rider briefing. Daily wake up at 5:40am. Tomorrow we will start with a 94km ride, 1900m climb and 2500m descend. It is going to become real. No warmup day, no easy stage. Any right in time the rain sets in … might be a wet start in the morning … 
In the afternoon I met Gavin and his son William from Cape Town. We setup their bicycles and shared memories of our