Tour de San Luis: Gaviria wins stage 2 in Villa Mercedes

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Fernando Gaviria (Etixx-QuickStep) took a thrilling sprint victory on stage 2 of the Tour de San Luis into Villa Mercedes. The Colombian outpaced World Champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff Team) with Elia Viviani (Italy) completing the podium in third place.

“We had to work really hard to catch the break because a lot of teams weren’t worried about them because they have a climber and not a sprinter,” said Gaviria. “I have to say thank you to Richeze and Sabatini for working really hard. They worked really hard to put me in the right position on the front.

“I have a lot of people I’d like to thank. Firstly, my team for helping me and trusting me, my mechanics, trainers but I would also like to thank my family for supporting me in making it to this sport."

Gaviria’s Etixx-QuickStep team, who were also protecting the leader’s jersey of Maximiliano Richeze, timed the chase of the breakaway to perfection. With less than 10 kilometres to go the three-man escape group still had more than two minute’s advantage over the peloton and it looked like the Belgian team had got it all wrong.

However, as the three approached the finishing straight they could see the pack charging behind them. There was one last attempt from Genki Yamamoto to hold them off but it was to no avail and he was caught just inside the one kilometre to go banner.

A day after taking the lead of the race, Richeze was back to team duties and sat on the front of the bunch dragging Gaviria in his wheel. The Argentinean peeled off with only metres remaining almost dropping Gaviria right on the line. From there, Gaviria had time to check over his shoulder as he rode to the line unchallenged. The victory gives Gaviria the race lead ahead of Richeze, with Nairo Quintana sitting in sixth overall at 18 seconds back and World champion Sagan is ninth at 27 seconds back.

Stage 2 of the Tour de San Luis brought the riders from the San Luis to Villa Mercedes. It was another scorcher as the temperatures soared once again. The riders enjoyed a relaxed start to the day and many them rode from the hotel to the start around 15 kilometres away. A break of six riders was quick to form and the peloton were happy to see them go up the road.

The six to make it away were Ciao Godoy (Brazil), Juan I Curuchet (Argentina), Emiliano Ibarra (S.E.P. San Juan), Israel Nuño (Inteja-MMR), Yamamoto (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Ariel Sivori (Los Matanceros). The six had built up a gap of 5:20 with 100 kilometres to go before the Etixx-QuickStep led peloton began to bring them back. However, Nuño dropped off the back and the five remaining attackers were able to increase their advantage to over six minutes with 30 kilometres to go.

With 20-kilometres to go Siviori threw a move up the road. Godoy was quick to react with Yamamoto also bridging over to the gap.

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