La Ruta de los Conquistadores
RamÃrez and Haywood Win the 15th Anniversary’s Title
18.11.2007
This fourth stage started at the Aquiares Coffee Estate and finished 125 kilometers later in Playa Bonita of Limón. Men’s winner was Frenchman Thomas Dietsch (Gewiss-Bianchi) with a time of 5:03:15, while Swiss Thomas Zahnd (Team Stoeckli) finished 2 seconds behind him. “Lico� Ramirez was third, seven seconds later.
The final result ratified ‘Lico’ as the only four-times La Ruta winner, while Susan Haywood took the women’s trophy at her first attempt in this famous Costa Rican mountain biking event. Precisely, Haywood managed to complete this Saturday’s course by following Sho-Air’s rider Louise Kobin, a former three times La Ruta winner. Kobin won the stage with a time of 6:06:15, as Sue came in four seconds after.
In the general classification, both winners achieved a sizeable advantage over their followers. Ramirez got the yellow jersey with a total time of 17:40:21. Paolo Montoya (Mancosta Lee Cougan-Economy Rent a Car) was second 28:29 behind him, and French XCM World Cup Champion Thomas Dietsch ended third 44:36 down on the winner’s mark.
“I’m happy because we have recovered the title after two year’s of foreign domination. This was the hardest La Ruta of the four that I have won,� Federico stated.
Susan Haywood’s time screen showed 22:50:06, while Kobin and local 18 year’s old Alejandra Carvajal (BCR-Pizza Hut) were behind by 43:18 and 2:41:37 respectively. “This was another hard stage, probably the hardest one. I knew Louise had more experience than me on this terrain so all I could do was follow her until the finish,� Susan accepted.
Though the final course’s profile displayed a relatively simple trip from Aquiares to Limón, the truth was that the rain and humidity made this one of the hardest stages of the entire competition.
The unstable conditions of the train-bridge over the Matina river obliged the organizers to change the original course a bit, by taking out a little portion of the characteristic La Ruta’s train-tracks and adding a few more kilometers of paved highway instead.
SleepMonsters
