 By Cory WallaceDay 3 started with a 4am waking as a local band started up band practice. Iīm not to sure what would motivate a band player to get up at such an hour to blow on a horn but I imagine a band player might also have tough time understanding why us bikers would want to ride for 10 hrs across a desert. A little around 6am the roosters went off and the church bells were rung as the racers were awoken for real this time to get ready for the huge 135 km day ahead of them. Last yr this stage challenged the riders like no other as only 11 of us managed to finish in daylight.
At 8am the racers were set off by the towns mayor and pretty soon it was Lupillo leading the charge with Simon and myself holding on. Feeling much better then yesterdays rough outing I decided to test the other two riders and set a strong pace for the next 40 km. Simon would drop off after 10 km but I couldnīt shake the resilient Mexican. After trading off the lead for a while Lupillo launched an attack mid way up a 10 km climb through a desert canyon and would gain around 4 or 5 minutes on me before riding into the town of Mazatlan where a gongshow was awaiting the racers.
The towns people apparantly werenīt to excited about the TransMexicana coming through town and they had started painting over the route arrows and making there own directions. When I reached the town I found route arrows pointing every which way. I tried asking for directions but after riding around town for a while I became dizzy and confused. Luckily I ran across Lupillo who was also riding around in circles and the two of us went to a tienda to settle down over a couple cokes. After the drinks the towns people tried directing us down a rough dirt road but the cops showed up and they lead Lupillo I the opposite way for 4 km out of town and back onto the course.
For the next 3 hrs Lupillo and I would continue riding togethar towards Oaxaca before being stopped 20 km from the finish as the organizers had decided to stop the stage in Mazatlan as only a handful of other racers had found there way out of town. Driving back to Mazatlan we came across racers all over the countryside as everyone had been given different directions from the locals. Eventually everyone was rounded up and the organizers treated us to dinner and bussed us to our Hotel in Oaxaca.
Today is a rest day and we just got back from a media conferance with over 40 media members. Coming from a small town in Canada all the attention and spanish was pretty unreal. The TransMexicana is just in its second year and still growing but with all the media and the great course it isnīt hard to see this race developing into an internationally renowned event in the years to come. I have ridden my bike across South and Central america but the course we were on today was something spectacular and definatly in my top 5 rides of all time.
After re-calucating the times as if the race finished in Mazatlan it is Lupillo (Scott Bikes) in the lead with a time of 13:42 hrs. I am sitting 1:03 hrs back with Simon Tremblay (Canada)in third 2:21 hrs back after losing close to an hr with a broken bike and having to switch bikes mid stage. In the Masters category it is Art Mcfarland (USA) leading the way with a time of 16:41 hrs with Javier Iniguez (Venezuala) 1:17 hrs back and Oscar Ochoa (Mexico) sitting in third at 2:27 hrs. Yolanda Saro (Mexico) is the sole female competitor yet she is tearing the legs off many of the other racers as she is finishing near the middle of the field each day.
Tommorow the race will head back into the mtns for another day of epic climbs as the journey towards the caribean continues. | 
