Nairo Quintana (Movistar) proved that he is ready to continue his impressive rise towards the top of the cycling world when he won today's queen stage of the Tour de San Luis. On the final category 1 climb of Alto de El Amago he attacked with Sergio Godoy (San Luis), dropped his companion 4km from the finish, and soloed across the line while Phillip Gaimon (Garmin-Sharp) again limited his losses sufficiently to defend his overall lead by just 4 seconds.

 

On the first day of the Tour de San Luis, Nairo Quintana was reported to be suffering from gastroenteritis and for a few hours it appeared unlikely that he would have any impact on his first race of the season. Less than 24 hours later, he showed rapid recovery by finishing 3rd on the first mountain stage of the race and today he proved that he is now back to his best.

 

On the race's queen stage that ended with the 10,5km climb of Alto de El Amago and a short flat 1,8km stretch to the finish, Quintana was keen to prove that he is ready to continue his success from 2013. Knowing that he has a lot of time to make up on surprise overall leader Phillip Gaimon, he attacked almost from the bottom and none of his major rivals had any response.

 

In fact the only one who could follow the Tour de France runner-up was local rider Sergio Godoy (San Luis) and the duo cooperated well to build up a solid advantage of more than 30 seconds. 4k m from the finish, the pace was finally too much for Godoy who had to let the world star go.

 

Quintana kept his speed all the way to the finish and had plenty of time to celebrate his first win since the Vuelta a Burgos in August.  Godoy held onto 2nd, losing 50 seconds to the stage winner while Darwin Atapuma (BMC) was the best of the rest but when the Colombian crossed the line, he had already lost 1.32 to the leading duo. Enzo Moyano (San Luis) followed 7 seconds later while Lucas Euser (Unitedhealthcare) was 6 seconds further adrift.

 

All eyes were now on overall leader Phillip Gaimon who fought hard to limit his losses. However, he was even dropped by 2nd placed Marc De Maar (Unitedhealthcare) and it was clear that it would be a close call.

 

When Gaimon crossed the line, he had lost 4.15 to Quintana and this allowed him to defend his lead by just 4 seconds. Quintana moves into 2nd while De Maar is now 3rd at 1.15.

 

Gaimon now finds himself in a very difficult situation as a summit finish is planned for the penultimate day. He will do his utmost to extend his advantage in tomorrow's 19,2km time trial that is almost completely flat and should suit the great specialists like Taylor Phinney (BMC) and Adriano Malori (Movistar).

 

The queen stage

After yesterday's sprint stage, the Tour de San Luis faced three consecutive stages that were all set to have a crucial impact on the final GC. First up was the 168,7km queen stage from Juana Koslay to Cerro el Amago. The route was mostly flat but ended with the 10,5km climb of Alto de El Amago which had a gradient of 7,2% but was very uneven and had many steeper sections. The top was located just 1,8km from the finish.

 

As it had been the case on the previous stage, it took some time for the early break to be established as many of the local South American riders were very keen to be part of the action. The first group to get a significant gap consisted of 6 riders but it was quickly swallowed up by the peloton.

 

The break is formed

After more than 30km of fast racing, the elastic finally snapped when 5 riders managed to separate themselves from the bunch. Julian Gaday (Buenos Aires), Matias Presa (Uruguay), Juan Esteban Arango (Colombia), Juan Curuchet (Argentina) and Jonny Clarke (Unitedhealthcare) were allowed to get clear and they gradually built up a gap that reached a maximum of 6.40 after around 50km of racing.

 

Unlike yesterday, the conditions weren't as windy but the peloton still kept a high pace that saw them finish ahead of the fastest predicted schedule. Garmin-Sharp decided that it was time to up the pace and gradually the advantage of the escapees melted away in the brutally hot conditions.

 

A battle for points

The quintet stayed clear to contest the first intermediate sprint where Curuchet beat Gaday and Presa. However, the gap kept coming down and soon after it had dropped below the 1-minute mark.

 

Jonathan Guzman (Chile) and Patricio Almonacid (Chile) exploited the situation to bridge across but the break was already doomed. Arango attacked his companions who were all swallowed up by the peloton and a little later it was all back together.

 

Stetina picks up KOM points

When the peloton hit the small category 3 climb that preceded the Alto de El Amago, it was BMC all over the front as the American team was keen to set up its two captains Peter Stetina and Darwin Atapuma. Stetina made sure to crest the summit in first position ahead of teammates Manuel Quinziato and Taylor Phinney to reduce his deficit to Julian Arredondo (Trek) in the mountains classification to just one point.

 

When the climbing kicked off in earnest, Quintana was quick to show his intentions. Very early on the final ascent, he made his attack and took off with Sergio Godoy (San Luis). The duo distanced all of their rivals and managed to build up a solid gap.

 

Good cooperation

The duo combined forces for and with 4km to go they were already more than 30 seconds clear of the rest. That was when Godoy fell off the pace and left it to Quintana to take a beautiful solo win.

 

Atapuma, Moyano and Euser had set off in pursuit and in the final kilometres Atapuma rode away from his companions. When he crossed the line, he had, however, lost 1.32 to Quintana. Gaimon finished almost 3 minutes later but just managed to keep the lead.

 

Result:

1. Nairo Quintana 4.15.33

2. Sergio Godoy +0.50

3. Darwin Atapuma +1.32

4. Enzo Moyano +1.39

5. Lucas Euser +1.45

6. Miguel Angel Rubiano +2.09

7. Peter Stetina +2.46

8. Julian Arredondo

9. Gianluca Brambilla +3.04

10. Adam Yates +3.05

 

General classification:

1. Phillip Gaimon 16.54.45

2. Nairo Quintana +0.04

3. Marc De Maar +1.15

4. Darwin Atapuma +1.36

5. Sergio Godoy +1.45

6. Enzo Moyano +1.51

7. Lucas Euser +1.57

8. Miguel Angel Rubiano +2.18

9. Peter Stetina +2.32

10. Julian Arredondo +2.47