by Rod Hughes

Henry Raabe continues to lead individual performance in the Tour of Costa Rica bicycle race, but the third place Dos Pinos-Coopenae team mounted an attack on his BCR-Pizza Hut teammates in an attempt to pull out a team win, if nothing else. BCR-Pizza Hut has the team laurels as of Wednesday, partly due to Raabe’s blinding speed. BCR-Coopenae is 4 minutes, 40 seconds behind the leading team.

Mapache-Cuba is in team standing’s second place in this, the sixth stage of the race on a sterch of relatively flat road between Upala and Ciudad Quesada in San Carlos. They are 1:10 behind BCR-Pîzza Hut. Greatwall-Colombia trails a distant fourth, more than 5 and a half minutes back.

But anything can happen and a flat tire or a broken chain or any number of mechanical problems with these delicate racing bikes can change the picture drastically. That is what makes competition cycling one of the world’s most popular sports