Mejia triumphs in Tres Ríos

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Luis Mejia (7Capital/Economy) won stage 2 of La Ruta de Los Conquistadores on Thursday. The Colombian set a blistering pace from the start of the race's shortest stage, covering a supposed 63km from Santa Ana, San José to Tres Ríos, Cartago in 4:01:01. He spent most of it off the front solo.

Not being an immediate threat on general classification after finishing over 38 minutes off the pace on the opening day's stage, the overall contenders seemed content with letting Meijia go.

"I made an attack on the climb and got away from everyone else," said the winner. "I felt good and was always hydrating to keep my energy enough to get to the end. I hope to get more time in the next two days."

Overall race leader Todd Wells (Specialized), Federico Ramirez Mendez (Grupo Orosi Siglo XXI/Specialized) and Rom Akerson (Specialized) emerged as the top chasers of Mejia. Wells, however, lost contact with Ramirez and Akerson when he suffered a flat.

"I spent most of the day today with the guys who were third and fourth yesterday," said Wells. "We were together on the descent after the second big climb and then I punctured. I changed the flat, then changed the wheel at the next tech zone, but I'd lost a few minutes and couldn't get it back."

Eventually Akerson pulled away from Ramirez to claim second on the stage, while Ramirez finished third.

"Today, I wanted to protect my third place and watch the guy from Honduras (Milton Ramos)," said Akerson. "He was in second, but he got dropped, so I hung onto Todd. I have a lot of respect for Todd - I'm learning a lot to watch him ride. It helps me a lot to ride with someone at his level of racing."

"At the most critical part, Lico (Ramirez) attacked twice, and I didn't feel strong. At one point, I saw weakness in my competition, and I had a feeling I should go. I did and thank god I had a good race. I had my fingers crossed out there that my motor wouldn't break and those guys wouldn't catch me." They didn't and he earned second on the stage and moved up to second in the GC.

Complimenting the stage winner, the always classy Ramirez said, "The race was very hard. I'm tired after many races this year, and the Colombian (Meijia) is a good cyclist."

Following his flat, Wells rode to a fourth place finish followed by Cannondale Factory Racing teammates Ben Sonntag and Alex Grant in fifth and sixth respectively.

Despite losing time due to his mechanical, Wells remains in the overall lead after two stages. He has a 7:11 gap on Akerson, down from the more comfortable 10:34 on yesterday's runner-up Ramos, who is now third at 14:57.

Sonntag and Grant spent much of the day with Milton Ramos, who finished second yesterday. "I went into today with two options: go for a stage or help Alex," said defending champion Sonntag. "There were attacks right away and I realized I wasn't going to win a stage today, so I decided to stay with Alex. I think we worked well together to minimize his losses."

"Milton had some trouble on the steeper climbs. I felt better at the end of the stage and would have liked to gap him and keep going, but it didn't work out like that. It was a torn situation with Todd Wells just up ahead - we didn't want to close the gap on him, but we also wanted to help Alex because there were guys moving up on him on GC up ahead. But I think Alex was at his limit."

Ramos flatted on the final descent back into town and finished seventh at 14:21 behind Meijia.

Grant, who is now in sixth on the GC said, "We don't climb stuff that steep and had to ride it at our pace. Ben helped me out with some teamwork and hopefully my legs will keep coming around."

Women

In the women's race, it was a case of déjà vu as the top three women from the opening stage repeated their placings today.

Adriana Rojas once again rode to a solo win in 5:24:12. The Costa Rican finished in a torrential downpour, unlike the top men who enjoyed sunshine all day.

"I felt fine at the beginning, but I had some back pains near the end, which slowed me down," said Rojas. "This is a race that destroys you. I'm prone to backaches and have been having some trouble lately with it."

Behind her, Rebecca Rusch (Specialized/RedBull) and Louise Kobin (Global Biorythm Events) battled for second with Rusch outclimbing Kobin in the latter part of the stage.

"I didn't feel as good as yesterday for the first half and then I got my groove," said Rusch. "Louise and I rode together for about 30km. It was helpful. We kept each other honest. Then I started to warm up. I think the 29er was good on this course - I powered the flats and downs and was good on the climb."

It was a flat section where Rusch gapped Kobin. She crossed the line in second, 6:21 after Rojas.

"Today went better. It was hard, but I didn't bonk like I did yesterday," said Kobin after the finish.

The women's GC order remains unchanged although the gaps have grown some with today's stage. Rojas leads Rusch and Kobin.

Race notes

- It was this stage 2 last year in which this year's winner Meijia was disqualified due to accepting outside support. As the leader of stage 2 this year, he was accompanied by an official moto throughout - thereby preventing any reports of cheating in this 19th edition of La Ruta.

- Several riders noted the stage was longer than the 63km advertised. "Today they said it would be 63km, but my Garmin said 73km, so it's hard when you're looking for the finish 10km early," said Wells. Rusch reported that her odometer read 78km.

The following race video footage was provided by Cannondale's Matt Ohran.

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