CRC 506 Gran Fondo Costa Rica was one of the great new events in the UCI Gran Fondo World Series 2023 calendar which boasted a big peloton of 700 riders in its first edition starting in the capital city of San José to arrive next to the Pacific Ocean in Puntarenas.
GRANFONDO
Starting in the National Stadium of Costa Rica in San José, the CRC 506 Gran Fondo has a 127.6km course which starts at an altitude of 1100m above the sea to arrive at sea level, but the course also has a lot of positive climbing totalling 1700m of elevation.
The National Stadium where the start is located is home to football, athletics and other sports events, but also live performances. After the start, riders leave the city from the northwest with a first 30km going down to an altitude of 600m.
Next is a 10km climb going from 670m back to over 1000m for an average gradient of 3% but with peaks up to 12%.
The middle section of the course has undulating roads before reaching the highest point of the day after 75km to then start the descent towards the beautiful peninsula of Puntarenas at the Pacific. The last 20km towards the finish are flat again.
MEDIOFONDO
The Mediofondo in Costa Rica has the same course as the granfondo but starts later from Grecia to finish also in Puntarenas for a course distance of 82km.
COSTA RICA
Costa Rica has a lot on offer for tourists. Surrounded by Panama in the south and Nicaragua in the north, the country has a long coastline with the Caribbean Sea on the east side and the Pacific Ocean on the westside. Tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the country with people traveling over for nature and wildlife including trekking, flora, fauna and bird watching but also for outdoor activities.
The country has a lot of national parks, volcanoes but also beaches.