Ramos speeds to solo stage 3 victory while Sonntag hangs on to leader's jersey

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Milton Ramos rode to a solo victory at the end of stage 3 at La Ruta on Friday. The Specialized rider finished ahead of Luis Leao Pinto and Costa Rican favorite Federico Ramirez. Overall leader Ben Sonntag lost some time, but managed to hold onto his number one ranking with one stage remaining.

In the women's race, Angela Parra won her third stage in a row and continues to lead the general classification. Louise Kobin took another second place, which meant no changes at the top of the classification.

Racers covered amazingly beautiful terrain through the mountainous central Costa Rica, including a trip up a volcano, which was strewn with fallen ashes atop the tree canopy - it looked like the trees were frosted. What followed was an extremely challenging, notoriously fast and rocky descent down to the finish.

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There was controversy five minutes before the start when organizers announced the disqualification of Luis Mejia from yesterday's stage 2 for accepting outside support. A protest by many of the Spanish speaking riders ensued.

"People started getting all mad and said, 'we won't go then,'" said Alex Grant, who is currently second in the GC. "A few guys turned their bikes sideways and no one was going. They were looking at me to say something, but I didn't know what happened as I hadn't seen it, so I couldn't say anything."

However, teammate Sonntag, clad in his yellow jersey, did step up and take the microphone. "I didn't know what to do for a second. I wanted to enjoy being in this jersey some more, so I went to the microphone," he said. "At first the South Americans were saying 'yeah, yeah' because they thought I was agreeing with them, but I turned that around and said, 'I'm here to race and a lot of people are here and want to race, too. Those rules were very clear before the race and if you break those rules, you're not supposed to be in this race."

"Ramirez seemed to agree and said, 'Let's go," so we went. The race started - albeit a few minutes late, and what was most interesting was that Mejia started, too.

Climbing splits men's race early on

On the first steep climb, the race split with four leaders setting the pace together: Ramirez, Mejia, Ramos and Luis Leao Pinto. Mejia stayed in the group and seemed to do the work before dropping off on the paved climb up the volcano.  Behind the leaders, on the open road was chaos with cars in both lanes (and sometimes on the shoulder) trying to get around the racers.  Horns blared continuously and some locals on motos also seemed to follow along with the official motos, who managed to successfully somehow get all the cars around with no major incidents.

That climb, which passed Irazu and Turriabla volcanos, was the main one of the day - thought it was split into two parts by a small downhill. The first part was steep and dirt and the later part was a more gradual, paved road grade.

Behind the leaders, race leader Sonntag struggled about two to three minutes back as the road ascended up into the cold, mist. "Today was hard for me. My legs got tired after 15 minutes and I suffered from then on and didn't start to feel good until we were back down and in the sun. Maybe it was too cold? I have two things to be thankful for though - for Alex who helped me a lot and my bike which saved me on the downhill. I think we got back some time there."

Sonntag spent much of the day with teammate Alex Grant as he did yesterday. The two blazed the downhill and finished with the dropped Mejia 8:12 after winner Ramos.

"I had seen that downhill before the race, so I knew what I'd have to ride," said Ramos after his victory. "It was an advantage."

Although Ramos had reached the summit with Ramirez and Leao Pinto, he pulled away from both. Ramirez had a tire issue and fell behind while Leao Pinto's downhill skills were not as good as those of his two breakaway companions.

After the race, Ramirez reported that he saw Ramos getting outside help, which is supposed to be against the rules, and decided to concentrate on his own race. "When I saw Milton getting assistance, I thought he was not in the race any more and focused on just getting the best time today." He managed to take back nearly four minutes on Sonntag and Grant and remains in third overall.

At the time of this initial report, official results were not available to confirm whether any rules were officially broken or any stage standings were changed as a result.  Final results indicate no penalties have been given as Ramos remains atop the stage results and listed on the GC.

Luis Leao Pinto put in a remarkable ride to finish second for the stage. "I'm not a pro, I'm a lawyer," he said. "I planned my whole season around the Portuguese marathon championships, and I have four titles now. Here my goal was to stay in the top 10, especially after stomach problems on stage 1." But the rest of the race has gone so well for Leao Pinto that he is now aiming for a top five overall.

"La Ruta is one of the most prestigious races, and I had to do it one time in my life," he said. "It's my vacation. It's an honor to be here racing with these champions. The climb was very, very hard, but I climbed well. I'm not so good at the technical parts, and on Monday, I have to go to work, so I can't be injured."

American Sam Schultz flatted for the third time in the race and then changed his approach once out of contention. "I got a flat early today and wanted to get more of the La Ruta experience. I settled into a comfortable pace and stopped at aid stations to eat cookies and cakes. I had a lot of fun. I'd rather win the race, but if I can't, I'll at least have fun."

When asked about the morning's protest, Schultz said, "I just wanted to go ride," but he noted, "I witnessed a tow and everyone in my grupetto yesterday got outside feeds. I wondered if it was allowed and thought 'what's going on?', but I was pretty sure it wasn't allowed, so I didn't take any."

Familiar results in the women's race

Angela Parra, Louise Kobin and Rebecca Rusch took the top three spots in the women's race for the third consecutive day.

Parra out-climbed everyone again, making it look easy though she said it wasn't. "It was cold on the climb with the wind. Afterwards, I knew I had to go down, but carefully due to the big rocks. I took an advantage and after that, I was just taking care on the downhill."

Throughout much of the race, Kobin was about two to three minutes behind. The American past winner had a satisfactory day. "This stage was the warmest it's ever been on this volcano and the downhill was in the best shape I've ever seen it. I thought with all the rain and floods lately that it wouldn't be in such great condition."

"The volcano looked so different than any time I've ever seen it. Usually there's water running down it and it's really slick and I have to get off my bike a few times, but this time I never did. It was fun."

Race note

The disqualified rider Mejia is the partner of women's leader Parra. After the race, she commented on the morning's surprise news. "They disqualified my husband because sometimes you drop bottles and you are in the race and don't have anything. Maybe he took a bottle or something like that."

Full stage results (Note: * indicates disqualified just before the start of stage 3)

General classification after stage 3