Tinkoff’s World Champion finished second in the bunch sprint, close behind Fernando Gaviria, after the early breakaway got caught within a kilometer from the finish. For a second consecutive day, the intense heat marked the Argentinean race.
The relatively flat course of the longest stage of the Argentinean tour, 181.9 km from San Luis to Villa Mercedes, saw a breakaway form quickly. The group of six riders that escaped was able to build an advantage of more than 5 minutes but was ultimately brought back within one kilometer from the finish, thanks to the effort of the sprinter teams. The race was decided in the final hundred meters when Fernando Gaviria grabbed the win, ahead of Peter Sagan.
“Today was another hot day”, commented Tinkoff’s sport director Patxi Vila, “and to race during four hours under a scorching sun definitely made the stage very difficult. Given these weather conditions we didn’t work that hard during the stage because we couldn’t know how much effort we could ask from the team.”
“However, the guys were good and did well to be always in the top positions, even though at one point we even thought the breakaway could succeed. Towards the end, though, when we realized that the group could go and get them, we also gave a hand, and in the end we got a good result with Peter since he played it against a pure sprinter”, concluded Vila.
Peter Sagan commented on the day, “Cool! It was very hot today, in the end I never lost Gaviria’s wheel. But today he had three more gears and eventually he won by three bike lengths.”
After two stages Sagan, sits tenth overall, trailing the leader by 27 seconds. Rafal Majka, Pawel Poljanski and Maciej Bodnar are six seconds further behind, holding respectively 16th, 17th and 18th places.
For the third stage, the parcours can grant more surprises.
“Tomorrow’s stage”, concludes Vila, “will feature a climb at about 11 km from the finish. It’s not hard but it’s still a climb, so we might see a group of about fifty riders at the finish line.”
