Daniel Diaz (Funvic) put himself in the perfect position to repeat his 2013 win in the Tour de San Luis when he took a hugely impressive solo victory in the first mountain stage of the race. Having been perfectly set up by his Brazilian team, he escaped with Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) on the final climb before distancing his companion with less than one kilometre to go, taking both the stage win and the leader’s jersey in the race.

Two years ago Daniel Diaz proved his potential as a stage race contender when he beat some of the best riders in the world to win the Tour de San Luis. Last year his title defence ended as a big disappointment and so he started this year’s edition of the Argentinean in a determined mood.

Today he proved that he is ready to reclaim his title when he won the first big battle between the GC riders on the short Mirador del Potrero climb in very impressive fashion. The local hero dropped all his rivals on the final climb, including defending champion Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

Already from the beginning, Diaz showed his intention s when he asked his Funvic teammates to join forces with Movistar and the Colombian national team of race leader Francisco Gaviria to keep the early break under control. While Diaz saved his energy for the battle on the final climb, the break was gradually pegged back and when they hit the 4.8km ascent to the finish, they had the final two escapees within sight.

Already on the lowers lopes, Funvic set a brutal pace that gradually whittled the main group down to around 15 riders. This was when Diaz made his first move and surprisingly only Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) was able to keep up with him.

The pair shared the workload perfectly to quickly distance their rivals until they passed the flamme rouge. Here Diaz upped the pace even more and Torres had to dig deep just to stay in his wheel.

With 300m to go, Diaz made his decisive move and this time, Torres had no response. The Funvic captain easily rode away from the Colombian and crossed the line with a time gain of a handful of seconds.

His teammate Kleber Ramos made a late attack to take third while Quintana had to settle for 7th, crossing the line in a small 4-rider group around 30 seconds too late.

With the win, Diaz also takes the leader’s jersey in the 7-day race and he will wear the orange jersey in tomorrow’s third stage. He should get an easier day in the saddle on day 3 that takes the riders over mostly flat roads to Juana Koslay where a slightly uphill finish should be the scene of a hard battle between the strongest sprinters.

The first summit finish

After the opening sprint stage, it was time for the GC riders to show their cards on stage 2 of the Tour de San Luis. It brought the riders over 185.3km from La Punta to the first mountaintop finish at Mirador del Potrero and was almost entirely flat, with only a single category 3 climb at the midpoint to test the riders in the first part of the race. However, it all came to a very exciting conclusion on the 4.8km final climb whose average gradient of 6.7% was set to produce the first differences in the overall standings.

For the second day in a row, the riders took the start under beautiful sunny conditions and the attacking started right from the start. The fast pace caused several crashes, with 15 riders hitting the deck. It took some time with lots of moves before the early break was established when Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Lucas Haedo (Jamis), Sebastian Tolosa (Buenos Aires), Romain Guillemois (Europcar) and Mauricio Muller (San Juan) created a gap.

A big gap

The peloton took a lengthy breather while the five escapees built an advantage. Muller beat Tolosa and Haedo in the first intermediate sprint at the 38.8km mark and 20km further up the road, the quintet were a massive 8.25 ahead.

Movistar, the Colombian national team and Funvic started to chase and their work paid off. When Tolosa beat Haedo and Muller in the first KOM sprint, the gap had come down to 5.50 and as they passed the 100km mark, the escapees were only 2.34 ahead.

The break splits up                                                                                   

The three chasing teams realized that they had everything under control and so they slowed down a bit, allowing the gap to grow back up to 3.05. Meanwhile, Tolosa beat Haedo and Muller in the final intermediate sprint, meaning that Leandro Messineo (San Luis) defended his lead in the sprints classification.

With 42km to go, the gap had been brought down to 2.50 and now it was too much for Tolosa who was dropped from the break. At this point, a crash brought down Enrico Battaglin (Italy) and Felix Nodarse (Cuba) while the peloton kept the gap stable around 2.30.

Funvic up the pace

As they approached the final climb, the peloton accelerated and while Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step) fought his way back from a puncture, the bunch brought the gap down to 1.05 with 10km to go.

As soon as they peloton hit the climb, it exploded to pieces, with Funvic tried to split things to set up Daniel Diaz and Alex Diniz for a win. Meanwhile, the break disintegrated as Muller fell back to the peloton.

Diaz makes his move

With the front duo just metres ahead of the main group, a Funvic rider attacked and he flew past the two escapes. However, he was quickly brought back by the main group which was now down to around 15 riders.

Funvic went back to work on the front of the peloton while Nario Quintana was a constant presence near the front. That set the scene for Diaz’ expected attack and only Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) could match his pace.

The pair quickly distanced the main group and they were no longer within sight when they passed the flamme rouge, sharing the workload perfectly. In the final kilometre, Diaz rode hard to maximize his gains and he clearly put Torres in difficulty.

With 300m to go, Diaz made his decisive attack and he quickly distanced his rival. The Argentinean maintained the pace all the way to the line and took an impressive solo victory while Torres was second just a few seconds later. The rest of the peloton rolled across the line in small groups, with Quintana following in a small 4-rider group around 30 seconds behind Diaz.

Result:

1. Daniel Diaz

2. Rodolfo Torres

3. Kleber Ramos

4. Eduardo Sepulveda

5. Daniel Moreno

6. Alex Diniz

7. Nairo Quintana

8. Sergio Godoy

9. Daniel Jaramillo