Montoya solos to stage 1 La Ruta victory

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Paolo Montoya and Monique "Pua" Mata (Sho-Air/Cannondale) raced to solo victories in the men's and women's categories during stage 1 of La Ruta de los Conquistadores on Thursday in San Jose, Costa Rica.

"I was surprised to be in the front and stay in the front," said Montoya to Cyclingnews. "I figured that I'd suffer in the final section. I controlled my physical output and psychology to arrive here first."

Todd Wells (Specialized) crossed the line alone in second place after Montoya. Both are former winners of the event. Rom Akerson finished up shortly thereafter, unofficially in third place, but was soon disqualified for accepting outside assistance, which meant Alex Grant moved up into third place.

Mata was the first woman to finish.

Heat and humidity played a role as many racers struggled to stay hydrated on a hot and sunny day.

Men

Montoya, who won La Ruta in 2004, quickly proved himself to be the strongest man out on course for the day. From the start, he set the pace up the large first climb up away from the Pacific Ocean. His initial efforts whittled down the lead group to just over a dozen of the top riders.

Then, going through the jungle, Montoya further reduced the lead group to about five riders.

"I attacked in the middle of the course. On the first uphill, I had attacked alone and my legs had responded very well," Montoya said.

Coming out of the jungle and onto a long section of rollers on the road in the hot sun, Montoya surged and got a gap. Initially, Akerson and Roberto Heras went across toward him, but neither could match Montoya's pace on the climbs, and they did not close the gap.

"They never caught me, but they were very near, within one or two minutes," said Montoya. "Then I recovered in the last 15-20km. I took back a little bit more time then. It was a difficult race, especially on the uphills. Today was humid, and I had to drink a lot, but I still was cramping."

Montoya looked shattered after crossing the finish line and took a long time to recover enough to be ready to speak with the media.

Riders like last year's winner Wells and Grant both got stronger as the race went on. Eventually, Wells caught up to Akerson and then went on alone to second place.

"In the middle of the race, I had some bad moments and dropped back to maybe fifth or sixth place," said Wells. "I was happy to come back and only lose two minutes to the leader."

"It was hard for me today," said Wells. "Last year, this stage was longer by almost an hour and a half, and I gained 10 minutes on everyone. This year, it was an hour and a half shorter, and I gave up two minutes. I gave everything out there and I was almost cramping for the last 10 or 15km."

Wells also commented on how difficult it was to stay hydrated. "I ran out of water after one of my bottles floated down the stream when we crossed it. Last year, I took more bottles in the feedzones and this year, I didn't, so I was running out of water most of the day."

Akerson appeared to get third ahead of a chasing Grant, but after the Costa Rican's disqualification, Grant was awarded third place on the stage.

"Those guys at the front went really hard. I just rode my own pace and got into a rhythm," said Grant. "At the end, I moved up to third place and passed about 10 people such as Lico Rameriz and Roberto Heras, then Deiber Esquivel. I do better in cooler weather, so hopefully on the volcano, it'll be a little better for me tomorrow. I like the downhill off the volcano."

"Those guys were really strong today. It was impressive that they got that gap early, but at the end I was able to keep the time about the same, so I was happy with that," said Grant.

A disqualification shakes up top three

Last year's La Ruta overall runner-up Rom Akerson was disqualified from the race after officials reported that he had accepted assistance multiple times from outside the race, including after being warned. Riders are only allowed to accept assistance in the feeds zones and within 500m before and after.

Promoter Roman Urbina said he regretted that the officials had to make the disqualification, but the race had to be fair for all the top riders.

"They told him not to do it and he kept doing it. It's not like he wasn't warned," said Urbina. "Then he kept doing it. I hate to disqualify him."

Women

Pua Mata rode to victory in her first-ever La Ruta stage.

"It was fun and hard, but it was a great day," she said. "On the roll-out and at the beginning of the climb, I saw some other ladies, but after that it was riding scared. I never knew where any of them were and you can't get splits in the front."

Mata explained her strategy. "I was worried on the first climb. I wanted to get it out of the way and was thinking about the jungle. But I was like, 'keep moving forward and stay in once piece and don't get flustered'. I stopped a few times to lube my chain and I stopped in the rivers to wash off my bike. I never got frustrated."

"When you don't know the course, it's tough. People were saying 2km on that last climb and it was more like 15km. Everyone out there was great. People were offering me stuff, but I didn't take anything."

The American marathon national champion spent most of the day alone. "I was by myself a lot. There were a few guys I went back and forth with. Through the jungle, I stayed with two other people. Maybe I saw a total of four others. It was strange with 500 people out there, too, to be by myself."

Sonya Looney (Topeak Ergon) finished up in second place, well after Mata. After the finish, she said, "There were some challenges I did not anticipate. Right from the start, my front derailleur failed, so anytime I wanted to shift from my big ring to my little ring, I had to stop and do it manually. On its own, it would just stay in the big ring of my 2x10. I probably stopped 20 or 30 times, but I felt good and had a fun time today."

"Pua is really strong. I'm glad she is here to give me something to shoot for even though she is way ahead."

The stage was not as hard as Looney was expecting. "I didn't really suffer today.I've been racing and training since early in the year with the Yak Attack, so this is more of a vacation for me. I was expecting more gnarly, jungle hike-a-bike stuff. It ended up being 66 miles and 12,000 or 13,000 feet of climbing. It's my first La Ruta. It's been on my bucket list for awhile."

Costa Rican Ligia Madrigal finished in third place.

Full (but not totally full) results and General classification after stage 1

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