As he has for the last two years, Nairo Quintana will once again open his season at the Tour de San Luis in Argentina. Quintana, the runner-up in the last Tour de France, is supported by a powerful block of athletes including the Time Trial World Championships silver medallist Adriano Malori (ITA), Dayer Quintana (COL), the Spaniards Fran Ventoso and Marc Soler, not to mention Dani Moreno, who has been training on the roads of the Tour de San Luis over recent weeks, in preparation for his Movistar Team debut on Monday 18 January.

Argentina's premier stage race, which runs until Sunday 24 January, has no Individual Time Trial this year, opening instead with a 21-kilometre Team Time Trial around El Durazno on Stage One. The rest of the race comprises three finishes to suit the sprinters - Villa Mercedes (Tuesday 19 January), Juana Koslay (Friday 22 January) and the final stage around the capital - and three climbing stages, incuding the uphill finishes at Cerro El Amago (Thursday 21) and Filo Sierras Comechingones (Saturday 23), the highpoint of this year's route at an altitude of 2140 metres (7020 feet).