Boonen blazes to sprint victory in San Luis

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Omega Pharma-Quick Step couldn't have asked for a better scripted finale to the Tour de San Luis as Tom Boonen won the final stage in a downhill sprint with a top speed near 80km/h while teammate Levi Leipheimer secured victory overall.

Italy's Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) finished second while Maximiliano Richeze (Argentina) rounded out the top three.

"Very fast," were the first words out of Boonen's mouth as he spoke to Cyclingnews. "We had the fortune today that other teams were interested in the sprint. We already won a lot and other teams were chasing. It wasn't really that hard because those three guys were dead in front.

"We had six guys in the last 15k and just accelerated. Chicchi took the last kilometre in the lead, but it was so fast that you could keep the speed up; the sprint was like 80km an hour. I just started from third position at 200 metres to go and I had the good legs."

The Belgian ProTour squad also won the opening two stages with sprint wins by Francesco Chicchi and Levi Leipheimer claimed the stage 4 time trial.

Most importantly, Levi Leipheimer finished safely in the peloton to win overall general classification at the sixth Tour de San Luis. The top three entering the final stage remained unchanged with Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) in second, 46 seconds back, followed by local favourite Daniel Diaz (San Luis Somos Todos) at 1:29.

"I'm really happy, it was a super-fantastic experience to be a part of this team in this enterprise," said Leipheimer. "We worked well together and we all made sacrifices for one another; this is why we were successful.

"I'm thrilled to have assisted with Chicchi's victories - he seems to have rediscovered his stride and with Tom, who hadn't had a win in a while. On this team no one balks when they're asked to do a job.

"I knew I was in good shape," Leipheimer continued. "In the weeks before the race I trained really well on my hometown roads. I followed an approach similar to the one that has won me the Tour of California three times. My next race will be Paris-Nice.

"Now I need to get away for a few days and recuperate some precious energy. My calendar isn't race heavy. It was a choice we made to try to be in top condition for the events I am targeting."

First sprint melee

On another day of absolutely scorching heat in San Luis, the peloton started the final 167.1km stage in the city's main plaza and headed towards a 50km out-and-back circuit slightly north of the city to be navigated three times upon which they'd return into the city for the finale.

San Luis was out in force along the course and even more heavily in the final kilometres to the finish, and one was never far away from Argentina's flag proudly wielded by fans.

The final spot on the podium was still tightly contested on the final day as fourth-placed Stefan Schumacher (Christina Watches-Onfone) started the day just four seconds in arrears from a podium finish. Enough bonus seconds were up for grabs on the stage to put Schumacher ahead of Diaz.

At the first sprint, 23.5km into the stage, Edwin Avila (Colombia) took top honours, with Diaz edging Schumacher for second and gaining one second on the German.

The first sprint was also very hotly contested for another reason because the sprint classification was not yet decided.

San Luis's own Emmanuel Guevara (San Luis Somos Todos) started the day with 12 points, two more than Avila, and with a maximum of six points to be awarded on the stage it was still a two-man race to claim the jersey.

Tempers flared between Guevara and Diaz as the sprint wound up and soon afterwards Guevara got into a fracas with Avila's Colombian teammates.

Guevara would soon be expelled from the race, along with Colombia's Weimar Roldan, and on the out-and-back course the Argentinean rolled to a stop as he passed the sprint line in the other direction, where he was greeted by a throng of supporters.

After those fireworks came to a conclusion, Jesus Rosendo (Andalucia) went out on the attack mid-lap and was joined by Renato Seabra (Brasil) and Douglas Moy (Funvic). The trio pushed out their lead to approximately two minutes, but the sprint finish was never in doubt.

The escapees swept up all the points on the final intermediate sprint, sealing the sprint classification title for Avila.

On a course favouring the peloton's fast men the escapees were absorbed less than 20km to the finish. Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Saxo Bank led the charge at the head of the peloton, setting the stage for an extremely fast, downhill finish.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step capped off an impressive week with the general classification title and four stage wins. Miguel Rubiano (Androni Giocattoli) won the mountains classification, Edwin Avila (Colombia) prevailed in the battle for the sprint classification, Gabriel Juarez (Argentina) won best young rider and Androni Giocattoli earned the team classification title.

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