MATINA, Costa Rica — Just keep moving. Even if only an inch forward. That’s the key.
How else would cyclists riding in La Ruta de Los Conquistadores — a mountain bike race marketed, quite reasonably, as the world’s toughest — make it to the finish line in one piece? How else would they conquer a merciless route that includes steep climbs, choking humidity, muddy jungle trails and swift-moving rivers that may or may not contain the occasional hungry crocodile?
But first things first: If they did not press forward, how would they get off this bridge?
The course on this, the third and final day of La Ruta, was flat, and the finish line beckoned from a soft-sand beach less than 20 miles down the road.