La Ruta De Los Conquistadores, Stage 1, Jaco Beach - El Rodeo - BikeRadar

Stage 1: Jaco Beach - El Rodeo 95km

Ruta de los Conquistadores 1

(© Jason Sumner)

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In a year when La Ruta de los Conquistadores added a new stage and is hosting its biggest field ever, Wednesday's race opener from Jacó to El Rodeo saw a return to the good old days.

Costa Rican Federico Ramirez, this coast-to-coast mountain bike race's only three-time winner, made a strong bid for number four, attacking midway though the 59-mile stage, and holding it all the way to the finish. Countryman Paolo Montoya was second, 7:25 behind Ramirez's winning mark of 5:12:36. Reigning World Cup marathon cross-country champion Thomas Dietsch took third at 13:44.

For the Costa Rican faithful, better known as Ticos, it wasn't so much that Ramirez now has a leg up in his bid for his fourth overall win. Instead they were simply happy to see a local boy back at the front of the race, following a two-year dry spell that ended Costa Rica's 12-year winning streak in this race that has gradually gained an international following. This year 28 nationalities are represented in the 520-rider field that's predominantly hardcore weekend-warriors looking for a Central American cycling adventure.

"To win again would be very important for Costa Rica and for my sponsors," said Ramirez, whose previous triumphs came in 1997, '98 and 2002. "But I have a lot of respect for the rest of the racers. Nothing is settled yet."

Indeed, with La Ruta bridging the gap that previously existed between stages 1 and 2 by expanding to four stages to mark its 15th anniversary, the race is now a true point-to-point, ocean-to-ocean journey - and it's a arguably a lot harder. This year's relevant statistics read like a medieval torture test: 221 miles, more than 40,000 feet of climbing. Mix in lots of gooey mud, high humidity and bone rattling roads, and La Ruta remains in a class of its own among the ever-expanding mountain bike stage-race genre. There was 14,501 feet of climbing on day one alone.

"I was cramping all over. Here and here and here - all over," explained Dietsch, who left behind the cool temperatures of his native France for Costa Rica's tropical jungle climate. "It's the first time that I must completely stop riding my bike. I couldn't ride, I couldn't walk or run, nothing. I just had to stop. It was a very hard day."

And if that's the third-place finisher talking, just imagine what it was like for the rest of the field that had to get home within the 12-hour cutoff.

"La Ruta is not a race for whiners, posers or delicate persons," reads a note of caution on the event's website. "It is not a ride in the park. The grades are steep, the climate can be extreme. You must be a true adventure lover and a great athlete to enjoy it."

Enjoy might not be the best word. Endure is probably more like it. That was certainly the case for women's stage 1 winner Sue Haywood whose bike was lost by Taca airlines during her trip south from Washington D.C. Luckily Haywood's primary sponsor, Trek, has a dealership in Costa Rica, and a shop employee showed up at her hotel in Jacó late Tuesday night with a replacement bike. Haywood said it was a size too small, but that didn't seem to matter Wednesday, as she cruised to a 16-minute win over second-placed Louise Kobin. Haywood was the only rider among the race's 43 female starters to come in under the seven-hour mark, posting a 6:54:26.

"The bike worked great," said a relieved Haywood. "I had to stop and raise the saddle after a couple hours and I got chain suck a couple times, but it was never bad. It was a really nice bike. I was really lucky."

Haywood might change that tune Thursday. Next up at La Ruta is stage 2's 46-mile grind from El Rodeo to Terramall. Riding from a horse farm to a shopping mall might sound like fun, but mix in 11,887 feet of climbing as the race wraps around the south side of the sprawling capital city of San Jose, and it's unlikely anyone will be in the mood to get a jump on the Christmas gift buying season.

STAGE 1 RESULTS