November 14/08 5:30 am - La Ruta de los Conquistadores: Stage 3 photos and report

Posted by Editoress on 11/14/08
 

La Ruta de los Conquistadores Costa Rica

Photos

After briefly faltering yesterday at La Ruta in stage 2, 'Lico' Ramirez (BCR-Pizza Hut) firmly regained control today in stage 3. Ramirez added another six minutes to his lead over rival Paolo Montoya (Economy Rent A Car), who is now nearly 14 minutes down with one stage remaining. Third place Enrique Artavia (Economy-Super Pro) is distant 59:12 behind, with Thomas Dietsch a further 1:08 back. Roberto Heras (Giant), the former road superstar, suffered multiple broken chains and dropped to sixth overall behind Manny Prado (Sho Air-Rock N' Road), after finishing tenth in the stage. Adriana Rojas (Bemosa/PQ) took her third consecutive stage win in the women's category, ahead of Lisa Pleyer and Sandra Walter (Felt-X.O.). Walter remains in second overall, but is 74 minutes behind.

Stage 3 can be described simply: climb for 35 kilometres and descend for 30 kilometres. Oh yes, surpass 3000 metres in altitude as well. The only technical aspect to the stage is the descent, which is almost entirely off road, much of it extremely rough washboard and loose gravel. The lack of the usual rain and mud was a mixed blessing, since it meant the trail was even rougher than usual.

When Montoya won stage 2 on the final descent, it opened the door for an attack on Ramirez's yellow jersey, if Montoya could reach the summit within shouting distance of the leader. Ramirez was clearly aware of this fact, and chose to address it on the first steep part of the climb out of San Jose by attacking with his team mate Alexander Sanchez.

"This was our strategy, to get away from Paolo. Alexander worked very hard at the front for me on the first part of the climb, and then i was able to attack and get a gap."

Ramirez crested the summit on the Irazu volcano some four minutes in front of Montoya, which meant he could conceivably be caught by a superior descender. However, Montoya inexplicably lost another two minutes in the descent.

"I did hope to do better, yes," agreed Montoya "but the altitude was a problem for me."

"With it so dry, it made the descent better for me," explained Ramirez. "The top part has some rolling up and down parts, so i think I was able to gain more time there as well.

Behind the front two was a group with Dietsch, Heras, Sanchez, Prado, Marvin Campos (Super Pro - Economy)and Artavia. Dietsch and Prado gapped Artavia on the descent for third and fourth, while Heras fell further and further back each time he stopped to deal with his damaged chain. The Spaniard could have potentially finished higher, since Dietsch commented that Heras was descending well with them until his mechanical problems.

The conclusion of La Ruta tomorrow is unlikely to have any effect on the top two spots, but the race for third is still quite open, since Dietsch is only 68 seconds behind Artavia. Dietsch won the final stage last year, so there should be some action from the tall French rider.