Nairo Quintana (Movistar) got his year off to a perfect start when he made an impressive comeback on the race's queen stage to take back more than 4 minutes for surprise leader Phil Gaimon (Garmin-Sharp) to win the Tour de San Luis overall. The talented Colombian admitted to have done no specific training for the event but underlined the importance of starting the season with a confidence boost.

There couldn't have been a better result for Movistar in the 8th edition of the Tour de San Luis, the most important stage race in South America. Nairo Quintana had no troubles during the final day of the Argentinean event -148km from the province's capital to Terrazas del Portezuelo - as it ended in a bunch sprint that was convincingly taken by Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida), with Movistar sprinter Francisco Ventoso finishing 15th. This allowed the Colombian superstar to seal his overall win in the event, finishing 43 seconds ahead of Phil Gaimon (Garmin-Sharp) and 2.02 ahead of Sergio Godoy (San Luis)

Quintana proved to be the strongest into the climbs with his exhibition atop the Cerro El Amago on day four where he took back more than 4 minutes from Gaimon who had become the surprise leader of the race by successfully completing a breakaway on stage 1. He kept things under control on Saturday in the final mountain stage to the Mirador del Sol after having taken the lead in the previous day's time trial.

His notable performance at Friday's flat race against the clock in San Luis where Movistar conquered their second success with newcomer Adriano Malor, confirmed his supremacy in a race where the team got back to winning ways three years after the late Xavi Tondo notched up Movistar's first ever win -the 2011 time trial- under Telefónica's sponsorhip.

Quintana was happy to win the biggest event in his home continent but stressed that the race had not been a major target for ghim

"It's an important win when it comes to motivation for the rest of the year," he said. "I didn't make any specific training for the beginning of the season, though we had expected to start a bit stronger than last year. I had no major problems during my preparations and I felt really well throughout the race."

Quintana got his race off to a bad start on stage 1 where he suffered from stomach problems but managed to save the day and improve in time for the mountains.

"I had a bad day on the opening one with that pain in my stomach, but fortunately I could get over the day and I recovered from that afterwards," he said. "I must thank everyone at the team, because they believed in me from the very first day and protected me all the way to the end of the race. That's crucial, because though you feel strong, you end up paying for your efforts if you have no strong teammates - they make things much easier."

One of the hot topic of discussions so far has been whether Quintana will do the Giro d'Italia or the Tour de France. His manager Eusebio Unzue seems to favour the Italian grand tour but the decision will ultimately be taken by the sponsor who may want to see the rider return to the biggest race in the world.

"My calendar is still to be decided - it will pretty much depend on whether we ride the Giro or the Tour," Quintana said. "For the time being, I'm only thinking about getting back to Spain for the season launch with my teammates, and after that, flying quickly to Colombia to witness the birth of my daughter, Mariana, which is due for the first days of February."

Sports director Jose Luis Jaimerena admitted to be surprised by the outcome of the race.

"To be honest, our feelings about this week's results are impossible to beat," he said. "We didn't come here with a clear goal of fighting for the overall win, especially because you don't have references about your rivals in these early-season events. We didn't get off to a good start because we thought stage one was going to come down to a sprint and that breakaway almost cost us all the race.

"Add to that what happened with Nairo's stomach problems - we were happy to get through the day with him. He went through pretty bad moments, but the man had the guts to get over it and he ultimately recovered in the following days."

Jaimerena said that the team had been uncertain about Gaimon who did really well on the first mountain stage where he only lost a few seconds to Quintana.

"We didn't have any references about Gaimon, but looking at how he had defended himself in the first mountain stage, it seemed difficult to take four minutes back from him," he said. "Nairo felt really well before El Amago [the main climb on Thursday] and jumped from its foot. The team was phenomenal afterwards, always bringing him what he needed. Malori won the TT; [Andrey] Amador and [Benat] Intxausti were always with Nairo even though Intxausti suffered from stomach problems; Lastras did his thing as usual; Ventoso performed really well...

Jaimerena was especially pleased with the results in light of the team's bad luck in the Tour Down Under. Giovanni Visconti crashed out of the opening criterium with a broken tibia, Jose Joaquin Rojas left the race with a broken scaphoid and Jose Ivan Gutierrez abandoned with illness. On top of that, last year's runner-up Javier Moreno was far from the level he had shown 12 months ago.

"Starting the season this way is always important, especially for the team's moral," he said. Even more this year, with all the bad luck we've suffered in Australia. I hope we could balance the overview of this month after such misfortune."

Quintana's next race is likely to be the Ruta del Sol in the middle of February.