Race leaders Federico Ramírez (BCR-Pizza Hut) and Susan Haywood both extended their leads in day three of Costa Rican stage race La Ruta de los Conquistadores, both taking their third successive stage wins.

The 66.7km stage included the long climb to the Irazú Volcano, an arrangement that suited Ramírez perfectly. He made an early attack to drop Deiber Esquivel (IBP Pensiones) and Paolo Montoya (Mancosta-Lee Cougan). “The original idea was to hold the pace and see what they were planning to do,” said Ramírez later, “But I realised that they weren’t trying anything when I thought it should happen. I felt like they were weak and I was strong enough to go.”

With enough of a gap to tackle the final descent with caution, Ramírez rolled in to the finish in a time of 3:34:25, nearly nine minutes ahead of Esquivel and over 10 clear of Montoya. Ramírez goes into the final stage with a 27:08 advantage over Montoya.

Sue Haywood won the day in the women’s competition, using her downhill skills to put more time into Louise Kobin (Sho-Air) and Alejandra Carvajal (BCR-Pizza Hut). Haywood has 43:21 over Kobin going into stage four.

Your day three British rider update sees Hamish Bingley (Ben Hayward Cycles) up to 54th place in Open, Vik Chaudhuri 34th in A Masters, Charlie Eustace 38th in A Masters, Sam Dowling (Fanylion Racing) 59th in A Masters, Matthew Kemp (Ride Beyond) 67th in A Masters and his team-mate Garry Christopher categorised in 99th place (although he didn’t apparently complete the first stage). Then there’s Mark Cadle running 32nd in B Masters and Andrew Burton 6th in Veterans.

The final stage of La Ruta de los Conquistadores is the 120km trip from Turrialba to the Atlantic Zone’s flatlands.