Tour de San Luis (st. 7)

Taken out of contention after a bad detour at the favourable, uphill sprint on day two, Spanish champion takes 3rd at final stage in San Luis

“I couldn’t make it into a perfect finish for me. The BMC train went out of the road on a detour; I went after them to avoid a crash.” That was the tweet sent out of disappointment by Fran Ventoso after being unable to contest the sprint at Terrazas del Portezuelo on stage two in the Tour de San Luis, with a small climb similar to the ones from two of his biggest victories: the one from the 2011 Giro in Fiuggi and the Spanish road Championship won in Salamanca last season. Five days later, the Cantabrian got back from misfortune with a third place in the closing stage, over 154km between the province’s capital and Juana Koslay, where local hero Dani Díaz (SLS) secured his overall victory.

It was a slightly flatter finish, but with strong headwind, to which Ventoso came in good position after textbook developments, with a 9-man breakaway reached down with just over 20k from the finish and a strong pace in the finale by OPQ, annulled in the last kilometers by a pull from CAN in search for good position for Slovak Peter Sagan. It would eventually be Mattia Gavazzi (AND) who took the volata as the red-yellow Movistar Team sprinter tried to progress from the left side and ended up claiming his first podium of the season. The squad directed by José Luis Jaimerena will get on their trip back to Spain on Monday as they set their sights, as well as their team-mates from the Tour Down Under, in the start of the Spanish season at the Challenge Mallorca next Sunday.