Felipe Nystrom wins the Costa Rican Elite Road Race Championships

We have seen Felipe Nystrom grow through the sport of cycling over the last few years. When we first met him, he was just learning how strong he was and how to handle his bike. Flash forward a few years, and he is winning the Costa Rican Elite Road Race National Championships.

His story is not done justice in this short interview, but it is inspirational nonetheless. Thank you for sitting down with us, Felipe and talking about the race, your life, and how you came to find bike racing.

From all of us at OBRA, congratulations, Felipe! We can’t wait to see where the bike takes you!

Photo by Dialed Cycling Team

 

1. First off, congratulations on the recent Costa Rican Elite Road Race Championship. Can you talk us through how the race unfolded?

For this race, we came up with a 5 step plan. With so many professional teams with 5, 6, and/or 7 riders step one was going to be to force a large selection that would allow me to hide but also not have to deal with full teams. The first hour and a half of racing we averaged 48.6 km/h and every time there was an attack I would either follow it or counter it. At about 60k into the race, I attacked and was joined by a few roses and over the next 10k we were joined by groups 2 and three riders until there were about 30 of us. Once that selection formed it was time for step 2: making it up to the first climb. It was a short one but extremely steep. I got dropped halfway up but was able to catch on by the bottom of the descent, however, a small group of guys had broken away. Had to go to the front to bring it back because teammates of the guys in the break were happy to let it go. Fortunately, I had some help from a couple of other solo riders. Things mellowed out as the course flattened and we hit the return point close the CR/Panama border. Step 3 was going to be surviving the climb back. It was not as steep but much longer. The pre-race favorites attacked and the strongest team in that selection (they had 5 riders) put two of them off the front and they were then joined by two other riders from the other well-represented team. By the time I caught back on they had a pretty good gap. Once again I had to go to the front but this time I wasn’t getting help as the race had gotten away from us and the two better-represented teams did a great job of holding up the pace. I pushed for about 3k since I figured I didn’t travel all the way there to leave something in the tank and just as I was about done the other guy came to the front and that was the motivation I needed to keep it going a bit longer. He and I worked very well together and about 3k later one of his teammates joined us on the front and between the three of us we brought the break back. Once we were together again it was time for step 4. Staying with the attacks. The newly few ks were constant attacking, counter-attacking and solo efforts that we had to bring back. At this point, it was getting really hot and humid as the entire race was along the Atlantic coast. At about 20k to go we just kind of tacitly agreed that nobody was going to get away and that it was going to be a bunch finish. This brought us to step 5. Getting ready for the sprint. Unfortunately, as things had gone for the most part as I’d wanted to I started to cramp. My left leg wasn’t doing too well. But I kept telling myself that I just needed a little bit longer. I hid and conserved as much energy as I could for the last 15k and thought about how I was going to try to get around what could potentially be 3 separate leadout trains without knowing who any of the riders or sprinters were. The run into the finish was a long straight line with a left to right head crosswind. At 1k the trains started forming but we were still too far out, which was great for me because they were going to run out of riders too far out. At 500mts to go, I had to get out into the wind on the left side because I was in a terrible position since everyone wanted the right side of the road. As I moved up one of the guys went to the far left to try to surprise everyone. My best chance was to get on his wheel and hope he could take it to 20mts to go or better. Unfortunately, he faded at 300mts to go but at that point, there was nothing more to do than to go all in from there. It was definitely a long one but I was able to hold everyone off to take the win.

 

2. Is this your first time racing the Costa Rican Road Race National Championships?

It is my first Elite/Pro Nats. About 20 years ago I had raced junior nats and finished 3rd that day.

 

3. When did you move to the US and how was your time living in Costa Rica?

I moved to the US on August 12th, 2013. I was born and grew up in Costa Rica and I absolutely love my country. Unfortunately, it was also where depression and eventually drugs and alcohol, led to living on the street and several suicide attempts.

 

4. How did you find bike racing?

When I came into recovery I was in a safe place, in a treatment center but once it was time to go out into the wild I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it because drugs and alcohol were very easy for me to find. So six years ago, when the opportunity came to move to a place where I didn’t know anybody I took and landed in PDX. The first couple of years here all I did was work because I was in such a financial hole that I had to do everything I could to get out. But once I got somewhat above water I figured it was time to make some friends around here. Problem was that I didn’t know how to. For about half my life at the time the only socializing I’d done involved drugs and alcohol. I didn’t know how to make “normal” friends. Since I’d practiced sports in the past I thought that maybe if I got back into it I might meet some cool peeps. I started with triathlon and actually won a couple of amateur ones (Blue Lake and Balck Diamond) but have you felt the water in the area????? It’s freezing!!! Sean Bostad who was running the indoor cycling for TriTeam PDX convinced me to do Chery Pie Road Race and that was the beginning of cycling in PDX

 

5. Can you give us a little sneak peek of your National Championship jersey?

It’s coming….. I haven’t been given the design yet.

 

6. If you could give one piece of advice to new racers what would it be?

Keep at it. No matter how you do. Just keep working. If you do well, you can do better. If you don’t do well, you can do better. Don’t let anybody tell you, you can’t because you can. I am only a cat 5 who just didn’t give up and you can be too!