If Rodolfo Torres had a hard time handling the pressure of targeting the GC of an international race like Tour de San Luis, it certainly did not look like that on January 22 in stage 4 of the Argentinian race, featuring the second uphill finish to the Cerro de Amago after 142 km. Team Colombia-Coldeportes’ rider provided another strong uphill performance, finishing third, 52” behind overall leader Daniel Diaz (Funvic), who broke away solo with 4 km to go on the final 11 km climb, and never looked back.
A trio of riders – Alex Diniz (Funvic), Torres and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) – were the Argentinian’s closest chasers: Diniz was second while Quintana had to settle for fourth after losing some ground into the final metres. With today’s performance, Torres held on to second position overall, exactly 1 minute behind Diaz, ahead of tomorrow’s time trial.
Once again, Torres’ performance was not isolated in the line-up directed by Oscar Pellicioli: Colombian National Champion Miguel Angel Rubiano was ninth, 2.36 behind Diaz, and broke into the overall top 10 by moving into 8th, while youngster Edward Diaz kept his second place in the youth classification by finishing 17th in the uphill finish. Thanks to the strong collective display, Colombia-Coldeportes also took the lead in the teams’ classification with three stages to go in the first stage race of the season.
Colombia-Coldeportes did not hide even early in the race, putting Juan Pablo Valencia in the day’s breakaway with former teammate Juan Esteban Arango (Seleccion Colombia), Dario Diaz (San Juan) and Giacomo Berlato (Fantini). The quartet was reduced to a trio into the final 30 km, after Diaz was dropped, and finally had to surrender on the early slopes of the 7,8% average steep climb to Cerro de Amago.
“Diaz is clearly showing his top condition, but we can be happy with the way Rodolfo handled himself today," Sports Director Oscar Pellicioli said, "as he is racing wisely and clearly holding his own against those who are proving stronger here in San Luis. He is one minute behind in GC, but with a time trial and another uphill finish ahead, a lot could still happen. We are also leading the teams’ classification, and that’s always a good sign this early in the season: Rubiano, Diaz, Valencia, everyone is giving his contribution, and it would be great to bag also a stage win before we leave San Luis.”
Tomorrow, Friday, one of the key stages of the Tour de San Luis will take place: the 17,4 km individual time trial starting and finishing in San Luis. Far from being a specialist, Torres already showed the capacity to provide solid performances against the time, like it happened last year in Monte Grappa uphill TT at the Giro d’Italia (20th), and he will definitely give his very best to try and trim his gap to Diaz.
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