La Ruta De Los Conquistadores, Stage 2, El Rodeo - Terremall - BikeRadar

Stage 2: El Rodeo - Terremall 75km

Ruta de los Conquistadores 2

Federico Ramirez walks his bike on a difficult section in stage 2 (© Luis A. Rueda Fonseca)

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Costa Rican Federico Ramirez and American Sue Haywood made it 2-for-2 on Thursday, after each took convincing wins for the second straight day at the 2007 La Ruta de los Conquistadores. Both now head into the second half of this four-day, 221-mile, ocean-to-ocean mountain bike race with commanding leads in the general classification.

Ramirez spent the first half of the day sitting comfortably in a lead group that included BCR-Pizza Hut teammate Juan Solis, fellow Costa Rican Paolo Montoya, Canadian Max Plaxton, American fat tire icon Tinker Juarez, Frenchman Thomas Dietsch and Swiss pro Sandro Spaeth.

The leaders rolled away from the stage start in El Rodeo, and were off on their own early in this 46-mile stage that ended in the parking lot of the Terramall shopping complex on the east side of capital city San Jose. The rest of the 453-rider field was left to their own accord, as they tackled the precipitous opening climb that started the altimeter towards it's 11,887-foot total.

The détente among the leaders ended when the real climbing began, in this case an almost-never-ending road ascent that linked the small towns of San Ignacio de Acosta, San Juan Norte and finally Copalchi. In between was an uphill grind punctured by numerous sustained 20-percent sections that didn't quit until riders were slipping through the clouds.

Midway up the ascent Ramirez bridged across to an earlier attack of three and kept right on going. Only Plaxton put up much of a fight, but his effort was short lived and he'd eventually settle for fourth place on the stage, 4:48 back of Ramirez's winning 3:50:00 time. Solis took second at 4:17, with Montoya grabbing third to give the Costa Ricans a clean sweep of the podium.

In the overall standings after two stages Ramirez has a total time of 9:02:36, 12:08 ahead of Montoya and 27:43 up on Dietsch, who finished sixth in the second stage.

"Ramirez attacked from behind. He was so strong," said Plaxton afterwards. "He bridged up to us, immediately dropped one of the other guys in the break, and then went balls to wall. I tried to stay with him and dug pretty hard. But I had to back off and he was gone."

Indeed, Ramirez soloed his way to the top, pumping his fist to acknowledge the cheers of a handful of spectators that had gathered on the misty mountaintop to watch the race go by. From there is was a mad dash to the finish, save a few final hurdles thrown into the new-for-2007 stage that bridged the gap between stage 1 and the old stage 2, making the race a true transcontinental crossing.

The toughest of those final tests was a nasty downhill mud section that had most riders, including Haywood, opting to walk, not ride.

"It was all sticky super slick clay," said Haywood, who finished more than nine minutes ahead of second-placed Louise Kobin and has a 25-minute lead over Kobin in the overall. "My tires were all packed up and it was so slippery. I didn't want to take the chance of crashing. It was tough enough just walking it."

La Ruta continues on Friday when racers will tackle stage 3's 66.7-kilometer ride from Terramall to Aquiares. This is a classic straight-up then straight down affair that includes 8707 feet of climbing up the shoulder of the Irazú Volcano, and a bone rattling descent into the Cartago coffee growing region.

STAGE 2 RESULTS