Team Katusha’s new rider Ilnur Zakarin confirmed his possibilities at the highest level of cycling. As a first year rider at WorldTour level he showed that he is really ready to show all his potential fighting with the best riders.

After having been present in the front in the mountain stages, Zakarin confirmed by doing a splendid time trial ride in San Luis (5th stage, 17,4 km), finishing 6th, just 33 second behind winner Adriano Malori (Movistar), the winner of last year’s time trial in the Tour de San Luis.

"The profile of the stage was not the easiest one, with a very fast first part and a climb on the second part of the distance. I feel good in time trials, so today I tried to show my best for the moment and tried to get a strong result. Of course, we are in January now and this is my first race in the season, but for the moment I feel well and I’d like to show myself from the beginning of the year. I never thought to perform so well against the specialists and the local guys in their “summer” shape. This motivates me to make a nice season for Team Katusha. Now we still have a hard mountain stage, so let’s see what will happen tomorrow," said Ilnur Zakarin.

Second place in the 5th stage took Michal Kwiatkowski from Etixx – Quick Step, who lost 4 seconds to the stage winner, while the daily podium was completed by Hugo Houle from AG2R La Mondiale, who lost 5 seconds.

As a non-TT-specialist Dani Moreno (26th) lost 1 minute and 20 seconds but moves up in the classification to the 6th position (at +3.15). Ilnur Zakarin is doing better and enters the top ten. In the general classification Ilnur is now 8th, +3.57 behind leader Daniel Díaz (Funvic). Tomorrow the race will be decided atop of the Sierra Comechigones.