Montoya and Mata win La Ruta overall

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Paolo Montoya and Pua Mata successfully defended their overall leads and claimed the 2012 La Ruta de los Conquistadores overall titles. Montoya held onto his lead despite a flat tire while Mata made it three consecutive stage wins. Enrique Artavia won the men's stage 3.

"It's my second time winning La Ruta," said Montoya to Cyclingnews. "After the first time, I tried again and got second place twice. The third time was the charm, and I won."

"It's so awesome to win," said Mata to Cyclingnews. "I heard people out there screaming my name. It's a phenomenal race. I think everyone should come and challenge themselves. It's such a unique experience."

Relative to previous years, the final stage was much shorter, not kicking off until noon and covering 70 flat kilometers. What was cut off was a long section of rolling dirt roads.

Racers of all levels had the option to whitewater raft down the Pacuare River in the morning prior to the start of stage 3. All of the elite riders opted to skip the extracurricular activity celebrating the 20th La Ruta, but many amateurs joined in.

Men

With the overall shorter final stage plus limited time before the first of the infamous railroad bridges, the pace was fast from the start.

"I knew it would be hard from the start. As soon as they said go, it was like a full on 'cross race, with puddles and chaos," said Grant. "It finally settled down after awhile, but those Economy Rent A Car guys started attacking. I had to cover a few attacks from them."

The favorites knew they needed to establish themselves at the front and stay out of trouble and they did just that. Montoya, Dennis Porras, Artavia, Todd Wells and Lico Ramirez were among those at the front.

Wells led into the first and longest railroad bridge, but he was astounded when Artavia made a bold, crazy move to pass him by running around him, along the very edge of the elevated bridge, which was extra treacherous today due to the rain on the slick ties.

"The guys just attacked, attacked, attacked and on the long railroad bridge, the guy who won [Enrique] ran on the outside of the railroad tracks and got around me when I was leading," said Wells. "I almost quit there because the railroad tracks were so slippery, and it was just so scary for me."

Artavia got around Wells successfully and literally ran himself into the lead. He created a good enough gap that he led solo for 20 minutes, but the others weren't ready to let him get away.

Artavia said, "I'm just fast running across the bridges. Then I was alone for many kilometers."

Wells and Grant worked together along with Ramirez, Montoya and Ramirez to chase Artavia.

However, race leader Montoya was not with them for long. He flatted when he hit a piece of cement after the first railroad bridge. The Costa Rican stopped once to re-inflate his tire, then did so again, and that's when it failed completely, and he knew he needed to change his wheel. Well supported by his teammates, Montoya made the swap and was soon back underway chasing as he tried to protect his overall lead.

"I was doing well until I had a flat," said Montoya. "My team was nervous and wanted to get things done fast. Fortunately, I could stay in the GC. I didn't know what the time gap was to Alex."

That left Wells, Grant, Ramirez and Artavia at the front together, but Grant was struggling to hold on and came off during a powerful pull by Wells.

"Wells and Lico drove the pace and I sat on them," said Grant. "Todd went really hard on the tracks, and I didn't have the energy so I just soloed in. It would have been nice to have someone to draft."

The lead trio worked together for a time, but Wells suspended his active participation with about 8-10km to go, realizing he had no GC to defend and that he should conserve for the stage result. Artavia came to similar conclusion and also backed off, which left Ramirez to shoulder the remaining work.

"I stopped working because for me there was no way to get better in the GC," said Wells. "That was with about 10km to go, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough. I should have stopped working at maybe 12km to go."

Lico said, "The last 5km, none of the other two guys wanted to work with me."

Artavia knew that to win he had to come into the final turn and sprint in the lead and he did just that to outsprint Ramirez and Wells. It was Artavia's first-ever stage win at La Ruta.

Grant came in fourth place and put some time on Montoya, but remained in second place in the GC and held off Dennis Porras, who was third overall. It was the second time Grant finised second at La Ruta, and he did so with no teammates to assist him.

Montoya recovered well from his flat and finished in 11th position to take the overall victory.

Women

Pua Mata made it three stage wins in a row on Saturday afternoon as she raced across the finish line on the La Playa Bonita beach on the Carribbean Sea. Throughout the three-day race, Mata dominated and none of last year's three podium finishers returned for 2012.

"Those bridges are scary. I can pedal my bike, but I can't walk across bridges," said Mata. "I was holding everyone up and I felt bad. I said I was sorry."

"I was in survival mode. Today was the hardest day, but I got through it. The start was chaos. The turns, the rain, just hearing brakes and tires skidding. There were a lot of turns. The front group got away and eventually I just kept pedalling."

Samantha Phillips finished in second at 11:05 while Cinthya Coto Elizondo was third on the day at 18:41.

Ligia Madrigal finished second overall, tying her career best La Ruta finish and ending up as the top Costa Rican female finisher.

Sonya Looney returned to her bike after sitting out yesterday due to food poisoning. "I was happy to be back on my bike today and back to being healthy again," she told Cyclingnews. "It was super fun. The bridges were good."

"I started in the back because I didn't want to interfere with other racers. By the time I got to the bridge, there was a lot of traffic, and I had to stand there for about 15 minutes. You had to be careful not to look down so you wouldn't start freaking out because it's so high up. I definitely need to come back and do a real finish and not get sick." She was not counted in the GC.

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