Garmin-Sharp climber Janier Acevedo has retired from Tour de San Luis due to illness.

"His stomach is really bad and he has a fever with chills," says Garmin-Sharp team director Chann McRae. "Losing Janier is unfortunate but we have a strong team of climbers here."

Garmin-Sharp now is in comfortable position in Tour de San Luis, with its American rider Phil Gaimon sitting in first position in GC, and with over 4 minutes lead to the strong climbers like Quintana(Movistar) and Nibali(Astana). The race still has two mountain top finished left, as well as a 19-km individual time trial. So Garmin-Sharp and Gaimon will have to work hard to keep the lead, especially with Acevedo now out of the race.

Acevedo himself is not very concerned about the illness, though. The Colombian says, "The truth is that the reason I came here is to accumulate kilometers, and to be in better shape for later races." Also Acevedo is not the only one with similar problem. Quintana(Movistar) and J-Rod(Katusha) also experienced stomach bugs.

Speaking on his plans later this season, Acevedo has a pretty good idea, "My calendar goes through Mallorca series, Volta a Catalunya, Tour of Basque Country, California and Switzerland." Of course, the Colombian would like to be selected for the Tour de France team as well, but whether he will race it will be decided by the team, presumably based on early season performance.

Garmin now has 5 riders remaining for Tour de San Luis. Aside from Gaimon, American climber Danielson is one that can be counted on. Also there's sprinter Farrar, as well as Ben King and Nate Brown.