December 17, 2009 (Pital of San Carlos, Costa Rica) – Russian Ivan Kovalev won Thurday’s second stage of the 45th Vuelta Ciclista Internacional a Costa Rica. The 149.6km route linked the capital San José with the rural community of Pital at the northern lands of the country.

The Russian sprinter scored the victory over a peloton of 60 men with a time of 3:41:57. Second was teammate Alexey Schmidt, while local Paulo Vargas (Plycem-JPS-Orbea) finished third. Kovalev triumph is the first for a Russian representative at La Vuelta a Costa Rica. “I’m very happy of having had this honor. I know I’m the first so that’s very special to me,” he said.

Young local Fabricio Quirós (BCR-Pizza Hut-KHS) remains as the general leader, however, his yellow jersey temporarily went to Netherlands? Jan Lof who were on the stage’s main breakaway along with Canadian Jean Lachance (Tour de Quebec) and Guatemalan Alejandro Padilla. The triplet managed to take the breech close to six minutes over the peloton which were forced to speed up to catch them with only three kilometers to go.

Friday’s third stage will stay at the North of the Country, with a 130,3 kilometers course that will start and finish at Ciudad Quesada.

Full results here.

Results

1. Iván Kovalev RUS (Selección de Rusia) 3:41:57
2. Alexey Schmidt RUS (Selecciónde Rusia) Mt
3. Paulo Vargas CRC (Plycem-JPS-Orbea) Mt
4. Douglas Offer CRC (Citibank-Economy Rent a Car-Blue) Mt
5. Steven Villalobos CRC (Plycem-JPS-Orbea) Mt
6. Sergey Kolesnikov RUS (Selección de Rusia) Mt
7. Víctor Smalko RUS (Selección de Rusia) Mt
8. William Valencia COL (Greatwall-Indeportes Antioquia) Mt
9. Jeroen Kers HOL (Team Ámsterdam) Mt
10. Esteban Castro CRC (Bufete Guzmán y Álvarez-Exeltec) Mt
11. Henry Raabe CRC (Citibank-Economy Rent a Car-Blue) Mt
12. Juan Carlos Rojas CRC (Plycem-JPS-Orbea) Mt
13. Carlos Pulgarín COL (Greatwall-Indeportes Antioquia) Mt
14. Alexander Sánchez CRC (BCR-Pizza Hut-KHS) Mt
15. Marco Salas CRC (Plycem-JPS-Orbea) Mt
16. Alfredo Flores GUA (Selección de Guatemala) Mt