Colombia-Coldeportes’ Rodolfo Torres produced arguably the best time trial effort in his career on Friday January 23rd in Tour de San Luis stage 5 (San Luis-San Luis, 17,4 km), and succeeded in keeping hold on his 2nd position overall ahead of tomorrow’s final uphill finish of the race.

Torres finished 14th, only 51 seconds behind the winner, Italian specialist Adriano Malori (Movistar). Overall leader Daniel Diaz (Funvic), 10th on the day, gained 9 more seconds on Torres, while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) finished 7 seconds ahead of the fellow Boyacan, and moved up to third overall.

“Torres was really strong today," Sports Director Oscar Pellicioli told. "He was spinning the legs really well, and the result rewarded him forthe effort. He is 1.09 behind Diaz, but still in position to fight for this race. The leader looks very good, but he has got no support from his team on the uphill, and we will not stand looking: we have a strong team, and we will be looking to do the best of it. It’s not going to be easy, but we won’t give up without trying. And we want to defend the teams classification too.”

While there are still two stages left, the final showdown of the Tour de San Luis will happen tomorrow, with the 6th stage from Achiras to Filo Sierras’ uphill finish. It will be a short (117 km) but intense effort, ending with the 16 km climb at a 7,8% average gradient: Rodolfo Torres’ way to Tour de San Luis final podium passes through there.