Porras solos to La Ruta stage 2 victory

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Dennis Porras gave the Costa Ricans their second stage win in two days at La Ruta de los Conquistadores at the end of stage 2 on Friday. Monique "Pua" Mata made it two stage victories in a row in the women's race.

In the general classification, Montoya maintained his lead in the standings while Grant moved up to second. Porras' bold performance moved him into third while Wells dropped from second to fifth. Mata continues to lead the women's race with a convincing gap.

The 79km stage took racers on a huge climb out of San Jose and past two volcanos: Irazu and Turrialba. They climbed high above the clouds on a road snaking through fertile countryside filled with terraced farms. Racers enjoyed refreshingly chilly morning weather, especially at the higher elevations and most donned jackets for the final, lengthy rock descent toward the finish.

Men

From the start, a group of Costa Ricans forced the pace as the race climbed up from San Jose toward the day's two volcanos. Porras, Deiber Esquivel, Enrique Artavia, Federico "Lico" Ramirez and stage 1 winner Paolo Montoya formed a five-man lead group as the road snaked its way up the mountains above the clouds.

American Alex Grant followed them closely, but yesterday's runner-up and last year's overall race winner Todd Wells, also from the USA, was noticeably absent among the leaders.

"As soon as we started climbing, it was clear that the Costa Ricans had an agenda today," said Grant.

Porras took over the lead and established a gap over the four chasers, who were eventually joined by Grant.

"At the start of the stage, I saw racers hurt from yesterday's stage," said Porras. "Therefore my plan was to sprint from the start. I felt very strong and we started setting the pace yet not losing the calm."

Ramirez and Artavia broke away from their fellow chasers in an effort to catch Porras. However, close to the top, Porras still had a 3:30 gap on the pair.

"I felt well recovered from yesterday," said Ramirez. "The high terrain was a good thing for me. I'm used to training at high altitude like that."

Artavia and Ramirez topped out at the summit together while Montoya, Esquivel and Grant crested the climb as a trio. Montoya stopped and took time at the summit aid station to let some air out of his tires in preparation for the descent off the Turrialba volcano. The race leader was hoping to avoid any flats which might cost him his place at the top of the standings.

Porras soloed to the finish line in a time of 3:39:26.

"Yesterday was a very harsh stage. I tried to keep my pace not to lose too much time. Today I tried to fight for the time I was missing," said Porras. Behind him, Artavia got away from Ramirez. Artavia claimed second at 1:26 while former La Ruta winner Ramirez was third in 4:04.

Montoya finished alone in fourth place another 45 seconds after Ramirez.

"Today I felt very good, more so than yesterday," said Montoya. "I had recovered very well. I took an intelligent approach to the race because I was afraid someone would attack me, such as Todd Wells. But he wasn't feeling good, so I attacked and went with the lead group. I also felt good on the downhill, but I rode with caution. I took some more minutes out of the other top guys."

Grant rounded out the top five at 8:03 while the last of the initial leaders, Esquivel, was sixth.

"It was a super hard day up and down the volcano," said Grant. "After a foggy and expectedly rough descent, I got a time split to Porras and realized that it was going to come down to seconds between us. I put my head down and powered along towards the finish."

Wells crossed the line in ninth place at 21:46. "Today was a really bad day for me. I came out of the group right at the start," said Wells. "I thought maybe I'd get going after a little bit, and I never got going. I kept dropping further and further back."

"Then I was hoping to have a good descent off the volcano, but I was also descending slowly as well. It was just a hard day all around... there was nothing in particular. I was just a little bit off."

Women

Monique "Pua" Mata rode to her second consecutive stage win at La Ruta in the women's category.

"You wake up and you don't know how you feel until you get on the bike," said Mata. "Of course, I'm a little tired, but the moment I throw my leg over the bike, it could be a different story. You start at 6:00 am and there's not a ton of time to warm up, plus you're in a parking lot in San Jose, you can't really spin around. I was riding around in circles."

"The neutral start is not neutral. I guess it's Tico neutral, but I'm on the gas at like 30mph. I knew that was going to happen. My goal is always to get away from the chaos, so you have to redline it for a little bit. Once the climb starts, it spreads out fast, and you can settle into a group."

Mata deliberately started slower as she thought it would be a long day, but then her legs kicked in. "I started picking guys off. It's good motivation having them up there. I caught this guy toward the top and it was good to follow someone with decent descending skills on the downhill."

"Every day is about staying safe and staying smart and keeping on my nutrition."

Jane Rynbrandt rode to second place on the day ahead of Genevieve Evans in third. Sonya Looney, who was second in the GC, pulled out due to illness after getting sick overnight and barely having enough energy to pedal out at the start.

Mata leads the GC ahead of Rynbrandt and Evans.

Stage 3

On the final day on Saturday, racers will undertake a shortened (relative to previous years) 55km stage for the leaders. They will race the flats toward the finish on the Carribean Sea, including the infamous elevated railroad bridges with missing trestles.

Going into the final stage, Montoya said, "About tomorrow, I am more tranquillo. I think it will be fast. It is a short stage. I will maybe try to win the stage tomorrow."

He and the other top favorites are skipping the optional rafting "stage" in the morning before the actual stage. Rafting does not count toward the GC.

Women's leader Mata said, "If you're not prepared for a different kind of adventure, this race could crack you. It's a beautiful country with beautiful people, and it'd be huge to walk away with the win tomorrow."

Full results for stage and brief results for general classification after stage 2