La Ruta 3: Esquivel, Kobin fastest again
Men's elite race leader Deiber Esquivel carries his bike through a tricky section. (La Ruta)
The MonaVie-Cannondale team worked their way up the volcanoes on stage 3. The team's Tinker Juarez put in an outstanding climb towards the Irazú Volcano, ascending like it was his last climb.
Teammate Jeremiah Bishop followed Juarez with a gap of close to three minutes along with Deiber Esquivel and Marc Trayter. The latter two were trying to break the trio apart and move up front in the hunt for Juarez.
Manuel Prado (Sho Air / Specialized) fell back throughout the climb. He mentioned that this was not his day and thanked the his teammate Benjamin Bostrom for his help. Prado had enough help to make it to the finish line and keep his overall leadership of the race.
The Irazú and Turrialba Volcanoes, both covered with clouds, greeted racers with a cold and wet passage through the surrounding forests. Abandoned roads, with rocky terrains, ran through slopes that could have cause racers to fly head first downhill toward the town of Turrialba. It was a cold and extremely technical route.
American Louise Kobin, a past race overall winner, won stage three ahead of Costa Rica's Adriana Rojas; however Rojas held onto her overall lead. A consistently solid display of technical skills and strength during the past three stages could take Rojas to an overall win after tomorrow's final stage if all goes well for her.
Stage 4 will include 121km of dirt roads, defying climbs and the seemingly eternal railroad segment that will lead racers to the Caribbean coast, north of the port of Moín, Limón. Racers will ride a final 12 kilometers of marshy, abandoned roads parallel to the coast.
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