Winner, ‘Edu’ improve GC situation with fine TT
24 January 2018

Both Blues now within top-ten overall

Anacona (6th), Sepúlveda (9th) take good results on Tuesday's time trial, look forward to mountains starting on Wednesday as Argentinian sits 5th in the standings, Colombian in 7th

Ryan Mullen (TFS) took the day’s honours on the 14.4km ITT stage three of the 2018 Vuelta a San Juan, held in the Argentinian province on Tuesday under again hot conditions. The Irish specialist, out of GC contention after misfortune early in the race, set the tone early on a course where two of the Movistar Team’s riders shone brightly: local reference Eduardo Sepúlveda and Colombian Winner Anacona.

While ‘Sepu’ finished 9th in the stage, completing his effort in 18’33” to finish 50″ off the day’s winner, Anacona was the best of the Blues with 18’21”, just 38″ back on Mullen and a good chunk of time in the ‘hotseat’ as provisional top-3, later dropping back to 6th place. The overall standings see the two Movistar riders with a firm grip on the top-ten, with Eduardo in fifth place (+25″) and Winner in seventh, 35″ behind new GC leader Filippo Ganna (UAD).

The Argentinian stagerace will seek for a more ‘traditional’ timetable -finish around 3.30pm local, 7.30pm Euro time- on Wednesday’s first mountain stage, a long (185km; profile), grueling route from Jáchal to Villa San Agustín. A 18km ascent will take the riders towards the final Cat-1 ascent in the day, 1,510m above sea level – yet 81km away from the finishing line.

Picture (c): BettiniPhoto.net