Tour de San Luis (st. 1)
No troubles for Nairo Quintana and Movistar Team team-mates on one of Tour de San Luis after three crashes split bunch into final 30k. Gaviria (COL) outsprints Cavendish (EQS) for first lead
With the menacing, persisting rain left behind in the early morning, the Movistar Team riders at the 2015 Tour de San Luis only had to face crashes as race difficulty during stage one in Argentina, a flat, almost descending course over 187km from the province’s capital to Villa Mercedes. Always well grouped under command of their two rouleurs, Jasha Sütterlin and Adriano Malori, Nairo Quintana and his companions covered calmly a day in which Marc Soler, with a puncture without consequences in the finale, completed his first ride as pro cyclist.
The three shocks, most notably a tumble with just over 4k from the finish and which momentarily broke the bunch into several group, did not prevent a sprint in which young Colombian track specialist Fernando Gaviria took a surprise win and the orange leader’s jersey in front of Mark Cavendish (OPQ). Sütterlin, 16th, was the best of the Blues into a stage preceeding the first mountain test on Tuesday: the arrival to the Mirador del Potrero, a 5km ascent to continue a rather smooth 180k starting at La Punta.