Durán wins La Ruta de los Conquistadores

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Federico "Lico" Ramírez (Grupo Orosi-Trek) and Pua Mata (Sho-Air/Cannondale) won the third and final stage of La Ruta de los Conquistadores on Saturday. The 121km stage went from Turrialba to Limón. Marconi Durán (Coopenae-Movistat-Eonomy), who was fifth in the final stage, won the men's overall title while Mata defended her 2012 victory in the women's category.

Costa Rican Ramírez crossed the line in 4:05:24, winning the sprint among a final lead group of eight men. First time La Ruta racer Durán won the race with an overall time of 12:19:09.

Second overall went to Alex Grant (Sho-Air/Cannondale), who took second for the fourth time in five years. He was 11:31 behind Durán. Costa Rican Paolo Montoya, who was last year's winner, finished third at 17:40.

The key to winning La Ruta for Durán was a strong first stage, during which he gained more than 11 minutes over his top rivals.

"I think I did a good job from beginning to end," said Durán. "I was very well prepared, and I wasn't one of the favorites, so maybe that helped me surprise everyone. All my team is happy, they had wanted to win the race several times, but it had not happened. La Ruta de los Conquistadores is a great race, I am very thankful."

Grant joked about his second place win. "I hava won second place four times, so next year I'm not coming to win, I'm coming for my fifth second place win, which will set a record. I have no regrets, I'm just going to keep on training for next year."

Last year's champ and stage 2 winner Montoya said, "The first day was key. I got overconfident, and it was a huge lesson learned for me. Yesterday and today, I gave it my all, but I was followed very closely by a lot of competitors, so I understood what was going to happen early on."

"At the end of the day I'm happy I placed third, although I know it was because Todd Wells got a flat tire, if he hadn't, I wouldn't have made the pódium. All three stages were won by Costa Ricans and everyone gave a really tough fight."

Stage 3 winner Ramirez was happy with the day's victory even though he did not make pódium. "I came to this race to fight, but I had some very tough rivals, I knew there were at least 20 competitors that were in great shape to win. The first day Marconi surprised us by getting a huge advantage time-wise. I had said from the beginning that both Marconi and [Jonathan] Carballo were very dangerous."

Mata won all three stages in the women's race and the overall.

"It is hard to believe that it is already over, but I am leaving Costa Rica as a Conquistador and the 2013 La Ruta Champion!" said Mata on Facebook. "This week had been filled with lots of riding, physical and mental challenges, amazing people, great company, phenomenal support and a beautiful country."

More than 450 racers from 32 countries competed in La Ruta de los Conquistadores.

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