Tondo gains race lead with TT win

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Xavier Tondo (Movistar) blasted to victory and the overall race lead following the stage four time trial at the Tour de San Luis. The Spaniard won the 19.5 kms individual event in a time of 23:23, besting Argentina’s Jorge Giacinti (Team Argentina) in second and American Scott Zwizanski (UnitedHealthcare) in third.

"It was difficult to get a perfect rhythm today because of the wind,” Tondo said. “I went with my intuition and saved some energy in some moments. When I came back to San Luis, I did my best because my teammates told me there were hard sections on the way back. It is my third professional win in the time trial. Every time trial is different and you never know what to expect.”

Tondo’s victory moved him into the overall race lead, surpassing the previous leader and stage two winner Jose Serpa (Androni-Giocattoli) by 30 seconds. Giacinti’s second place performance in the time trial moved him into third place overall at 34 seconds.

"The next two stages will be very complicated but I think my team is really strong, we have good riders for the flat terrain and riders for the mountains too,” Tondo said. “Even if the other riders want to attack, my team is strong enough. The problem will be my legs and not knowing how they might react after four days of racing. It is complicated but we are in a good position.”

Italian teams look for redemption in the mountains

Jose Serpa (Androni-Giocattoli) put forth a respectable time trial performance but it was not enough to stop his Spanish rival, Tondo, from taking the lead in the overall classification. According to Serpa’s directeur sportif Gianni Savio, the Italian team will try and take back the leader’s jersey during the mountainous stages five on the Merlo ascent and six on La Carolina.

"I think Serpa made a good time trial, the top ten,” Savio said. “I was surprised, many compliments to Xavier Tondo for his spectacular ride today. Serpa is still in second and we will try to attack Tondo in the mountains. Maybe Tondo was very good today but will pay something for his effort in tomorrow’s stage.”

Two-time Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) announced that he would be using the Tour de San Luis as a training race and pointed to his teammate Eros Capecchi as the team’s go-to man for the overall classification. Capecchi placed second in stage two and held onto the runner up position overall rankings until the time trial, where he lost over a minute to the new overall race leader Tondo. He will no doubt want to make up the difference in the mountains during the next two stages.

Fans go wild for home-town favourites

Racers flew through the downtown San Luis main street in pursuit of the highest placing possible in stage four’s individual time trial. Arguably the number one favourite to win the event was Giacinti, who had won the time trial stage in 2009 and the overall race in 2007.

"I feel very good this week because it is one of my main goals to win this race,” Giacinti said. “I’m in top form right now. I trained a lot with my time trial bike for this event because that is where I could make some time. I think I will be good on the climbs in the next two stages. I will take this one day at a time.”

Other notable contenders on the country’s national team included Alfredo Lucero, who won the overall event in 2008. His teammate Josue Moyano was sitting fourth overall before the start of the stage, but slid a few places in the race standings following the time trial. Last year’s overall sprint classification winner Walter Perez opened the event with the fastest mid-race split at 13:36 and managed to hold onto a top ten placing

American holds the fastest time until the very end

Scott Zwizanski (UnitedHealthcare) was the 15th rider to embark on the short but decisive time trial and ended up sitting in the hot seat with the fastest time of 23:38 for nearly the entire event.

"I was really happy to be in the lead today,” Zwizanski said. “Unfortunately the top guys are battling it out and of course they are going to go fast. But I was happy with my new equipment and the team support during the time trial today was great.”

The flat out-and-back parcours suited the time trial specialist, however, his performance came as a surprise, having arrived at the Tour de San Luis from the cold winter months of North America.

"I was happy for this performance because it is January and I did the best I could for this time of year,” Zwizanski said. “It was windy and a good course for me. There was a lot of head wind on the way out and I think I was about two minutes faster on the way back because of that tail wind. It was a good course.”

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