Versus Cycles rider Rodrigo Gonzalez recently competed at the first Megavelanche National Race in Mexico City.

(Versus HQ, CA 2007-03-09)

February 17th - The first ever Megavelanche National race held in Mexico City, Versus Cycles rider Rodrigo Gonzalez took 2nd place in the Pro category. The Megavelanche was a 7 km (4.4 mile) downhill race, with 48 riders competing.

Rodrigo said, “The most challenging part of the race is the start line, because we all start together, all 48 racers at the same time. The only difference between the 3 categories at Megavelanche is the distance between the rider and his bike. Beginners start 50 meters from their bikes, Intermediates start 100 meters, and Senior Elite (Pro): we started 150 meters from our bikes! You can imagine that I was already tired when I reached my bike!

So the idea of doing this is that we had to pass each rider one by one and that is very difficult because we are doing this on a Downhill course with only one pedaling part of about 300 meters, which was very useful to pass many riders at the same time.”

Rodrigo was only 14 seconds behind 1st place, in a race that lasted over 11 minutes! He also managed to take 7th place, Pro category, in the Downhill event the next day.