Montoya won the first stage and was able to keep his lead over 500 racers to the finish line in Limón, Costa Rica’s Caribbean main port.

The stage started off with an optional raft at one of the world’s most spectacular sites, the Pacuare River. Once racers made it to the take out, the last stage started.

70 kilometres of railroads and sketchy bridge crossings took racers all the way to the coast where the last sprint to the finish line kept the pace of the lead pack strong and explosive.

Milton Ramos from Spain has been in La Ruta’s top five on several occasions. Image: J. Andres Vargas – Lead Adventure Media

Stage winner was Costa Rican Enrique Artavia, followed by Lico Ramírez and Todd Wells in fourth place.

Artavia earned his stage lead from the very first railroad bridge. He ran around Todd Wells in a bold move that set the tone for the rest of the stage, then kept on gaining speed as he hauled his bike, literally running across the bridges.

“I don’t know how he did it, he just ran across the bridges and we saw him get away,” said Lico Ramírez.

Aleman going full tilt. Image: J. Andres Vargas – Lead Adventure Media

The leaders knew that the last 10 kilometres meant a mighty sprint to the end of the race. The GC was tight and everyone knew that a flat could mean losing a podium place.

Lico and Wells were able to break away from the chase pack and catch up with Artavia. But that wasn’t enough to get them on the podium at the 20th anniversary of La Ruta.

Stage results

Men
1 Enrique Artavia (CRC) – 1:47:42
2 Federico Ramirez (CRC) – 0:00:01
3 Todd Wells (USA) – 0:00:02

Women
1 Pua Mata (USA – 2:06:37
2 Samantha Phillips (GBR) – 00:11:05
3 Cynthia Coto (CRC) – 00:18:41

Final classification

Men
1 Paolo Montoya (CRC) – 10:40:27
2 Alex Grant (USA) – 00:07:51
3 Dennis Porras (CRC) – 00:08:59

Women
1 Pua Mata (USA) – 12:35:18
2 Ligia Madrigal (CRC) – 04:25:49
3 Cynthia Coto (CRC) – 04:33:43

Full Results here

Porras and some 500 other riders took on a stage that included ascending nearly 10,000 feet up Irazú Volcano. Porras was followed to the finish line by fellow Costa Ricans Enrique Artavia and Lico Ramirez at one minute 26 seconds and four minutes four seconds respectively.

Defending La Ruta champ Todd Wells, who was sitting in second place going into the stage, was one of those feeling the burn left over from stage one. He dropped to fifth place and is now more than 19 minutes off race leader and stage-one winner Paolo Montoya.

Montoya now sits a comfortable 13 minutes 15 seconds ahead of Alex Grant with a total time of 8:45:34. Porras, meanwhile, sits in third place, only 13 seconds behind Grant going into Saturday’s final stage.

Men overall standings

1. Paolo Montoya CRC 8:45:34
2. Alex Grant USA +13:15
3. Dennis Porras CRC +13:37
4. Deiber Esquivel CRC +17:55
5. Todd Wells USA +19:05
6. Federico Ramírez CRC +19:08
7. Enrique Artavia CRC +23:41
8. Milton Ramos SPA +27:03
9. Moises Hernandez CRC +36:59
10. Jose Montoya CRC +44:52

Women overall standings

1. Monique Pua Mata (USA) 04:34:40
2. Jane Rynbrandt (USA) +49:52
3. Genevieve Evans (USA) +1:25:14
4. Cinthya Coto (CRC) +1:25:29
5. Ligia Madrigal (CRC) +1:29:27

Todd Wells & Rom Akerson. Image: J. Andrés Vargas, Lead Adventure Media

The 20th anniversary of La Ruta de los Conquistadores kicked off with a bang Thursday as 500 riders departed from Jaco on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast on the way to the Caribbean, where they will finish 161 miles later on Saturday.

The men’s elite field was won by Costa Rica’s Paolo Montoya, who covered stage one’s 68 miles and 12,000 feet of climbing in 5:01:19. Defending race champ Todd Wells finished in 5:03:27, 2 minutes 8 seconds behind Montoya, who won La Ruta in 2004.

In her first time racing La Ruta, American was the fastest woman, finishing the day in the top-20 with a time of 5:54:11.

Paolo Montoya. Image: J. Andrés Vargas, Lead Adventure Media

Stage one ended badly for last year’s second-place finisher, Rom Akerson of Costa Rica. Akerson was disqualified for taking aid outside authorized feed zones. The decision by Costa Rican Cycling Federation officials means American Alex Grant moves into third place 10 minutes 1 second behind Montoya.