Italian victory in the final stage of the Tour de San Luis – Contador abseil total
The 154.7 km long seventh and last stage of the Tour San Luis started in San Luis and ended on a hilltop in Juana Koslay. A group of riders tried to get sprinters ahead of the field. Jesus Hernandez represented Team Saxo-Tinkoff in front of the break. Unfortunately, the group was picked off as the sprinter teams welcomed the opportunity to run their trains in position. In the last mile Omega-Pharma Quickstep placed their new acquisition, Mark Cavendish, in a perfect position ahead of the game, but the finish line was Mattia Gavazzi (Androni) the fastest man and took the victory in this final stage of the Argentinean stage race.
Saxo-Tinkoff’s French sports director, Philippe Mauduit is pleased with the team proceeds of the race: “The team has made it very satisfactory. We had not focused on winning here, but the boys have still been eager to fight both at the front of the field and with Alberto and today Jesus (Hernandez) in breaks. With Alberto’s victory yesterday, we even got more than important race kilometers from here and more I did not expect, “said the Mauduit. Contador finished fourth overall, while Daniel Diaz (SLS) finished with the field across the finish line and took the overall victory.
Gavazzi and Sempre Pro claimed first 2013 win at Tour de San Luis
Bianchi celebrated the new Bianchi Sempre Pro’s first victory, thanks to the winning sprint of Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela’s Mattia Gavazzi at the final stage.
Gavazzi oversprinted Slovakian champion Peter Sagan and Spanish champion Francisco Ventoso. The Italian rider didn’t need too much time to become familiar with the new Sempre Pro, carbon monocoque frame part of B4P (Born for Performance) family, engineered to combine stiffness with lightweight. Latest evolution of the Sempre model, featuring Bianchi’s special racing geometry, the new model displays a larger diameter downtube, internal cable routing and oversized chain stay for direct power transmission.
Tejay van Garderen finished second overall at the Tour de San Luis Sunday while the BMC Racing Team won the team classification of the week-long race.
Van Garderen compiled four top 10 finishes – including seventh in the Stage 4 individual time trial – on his way to finishing 33 seconds behind overall winner Ricardo Diaz (San Luis Somos Todos) and six seconds ahead of third-placed Alex Diniz (Funvic-Pindamonhangaba). A top finish overall was not his original goal, van Garderen said. “I was actually thinking I was going to get the stage win in the time trial and I wasn’t that keen for even going for the GC,” he said. “But (Directeur Sportif) John Lelangue and the team really motivated me to get it going. I was actually surprised at how up there I was – and how not up there I was in the time trial. My climbing legs feel really good and being able to gauge myself against some of the other competitors that I’ll be facing when I get to Europe was good. I think I’m stacking up pretty well.”
Strong Teamwork
Lelangue said being recognized for winning the team classification was equally as satisfying as van Garderen’s runner-up finish. “It’s not so often that we win the team GC and we did it with help from two of our new guys: Daniel Oss and Dominik Nerz,” he said. “The idea was to build a team around Tejay with a few classics riders and some climbers working around the leader and going for the GC. This was really good training for them. When you can win the team GC of such a challenging race that has a long time trial, two mountain top finishes, one mountain stage and two sprint stages, it shows you can be regular during seven days.” Daniel Oss (14th) was the BMC Racing Team’s top finisher on the 154.7 kilometer last stage, which was won by Mattia Gavazzi (Androni Giocattoli).
