Tour de San Luis (st. 3)
Movistar Team unaffected by blows into day's crashes -including a pile-up near the finish in Juana Koslay- and splits in the wind, keeps Nairo Quintana's chances alive after day three in Argentina
A fast race -barely four hours to cover the 176km stage three between Concarán and Juana Koslay- and a demanding one, because of the crosswinds and pressure over an early break whose gap never exceeded four-and-a-half minutes: the theoretical 'transition' to the decisive trio of stages in the Tour de San Luis -with the Cerro El Amago (Thursday), the TT (Friday) and the Filo Sierras Comechingones (Saturday)- became an accumulation of stress, with minor splits and several crashes. The most dangerous tumble happened with 2k to go, splitting the bunch and nearly involving Movistar Team's Jasha Sütterlin, fortunately without any troubles for him.
Nairo Quintana, always well protected by the likes of Malori, Sütterlin and Soler into the flat, remains in 7th overall -with Igor Antón now in 9th- after GC times were neutralized due to the incident in the finale, only the sprint remaining alive as Fernando Gaviria (Colombian National Team) took his second win in as many bunch kicks. With another dangerous day done and dusted, the telephone squad starts to think about the 11km, 7% average 'wall' the riders directed by José Luis Jaimerena will have to tackle tomorrow with the aspiration of keeping their chances alive.