Tinkoff’s sport directors had positive comments on this first competition of the year which allowed to assess the form of its riders. Team leaders at the Argentinean race, Peter Sagan and Rafal Majka, have positively evaluated their performance in view of the season’s main goals.
A 119 km final stage which started and finished in San Luis, concluded the tenth edition of Tour San Luis. It took the peloton to the parcours only climb, 15 km from the start and then to a flat street circuit that was circled five times. Tinkoff’s squad worked hard to keep the race under control, bring back the breakaway and safely position Peter Sagan for the fast bunch sprint. The world champion was squeezed out in the closing meters of the finale by Elia Viviani and Jakub Mareczko, with the latter taking the stage victory in a close photo finish, while Sagan came in fourth.
Patxi Vila, leading sport director of Tinkoff in Argentina had a positive overall assessment of the team’s performance. “Today the team did a great job in the morning to keep the race under control and arrive all together in the sprint, which was very, very fast. However, looking back at the whole week the assessment is positive, we put several kilometers of the race in our legs with good weather conditions and without any injuries, as we are one of the few teams that was not affected by the falls in the previous days”.
“Peter Sagan proved his good form with two fourth and one second place. Likewise Majka raced a good Tour de San Luis, especially if we consider he was competing against South American riders who are used to this heat and to whom this is a race which means a lot. The physical condition ahead of the Giro d’Italia seems to be fine, we are on a good track. Anyway, the whole team worked well, Trusov, Hansen, Poljanski and Bodnar supported the two team leaders in the best possible way and in view of the upcoming races, it’s very important they already have this race in their legs”, concluded Vila.
Peter Sagan, in his first race of the season wearing the rainbow jersey, commented on the team’s performance. “Today we worked well, we would have liked to end with a win but I’m afraid that was not possible. Anyway, I’m glad that in today’s bunch sprint there were no crashes considering it was very fast. The final outcome of this Tour de San Luis is good. I am satisfied with how the week went in view of the upcoming big goals of the season”.
