Ferrari roars into Villa Mercedes

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Roberto Ferrari gave Androni-Giocattoli its third consecutive victory at the Tour de San Luis winning the bunch sprint at the end of stage three. The Italian out-paced Argentine duo Marco Crespo (Funvic) and Maximiliano Richeze (D’Angelo & Antenucci).

Teammate, Jose Serpa maintained his overall race lead by four seconds  ahead of Eros Capecchi (Liquigas-Cannondale) and 10 seconds ahead of Xavier Tondo (Movistar).

“I got on Richeze’s wheel because he is one of the fastest sprinters here,” said Ferrari who won stage one in similar fashion. “My team worked really hard for me and for Jose Serpa today. I’m really pleased to be able to win two stages this week.”

Androni-Giocattoli’s four domestiques Luca Solari, Jackson Rodriguez, Gairo Ermiti and Angel Vicioso put forth an outstanding performance throughout the 156 km stage from Buena Esperanza to Villa Mercedes, protecting its race leader and stage two winner Serpa. Upon reaching the five kilometres to go sign, the four workers then dropped Ferrari off in the best position possible, on Richeze’s wheel at the front of the peloton, where he blasted to the finish line for his second stage win this week.

“Today we had four riders that had to work very hard for their race leader, so congratulations to all of them for their efforts,” said Androni-Giocattoli team manager Gianni Savio. “With 15 kilometers to go the team decided that it was time to work for Roberto and he said, “OK.”

Big break caught on the last leg

The 140 racers who are participating at the fifth annual Tour de San Luis lined up on the starting line in Buena Esperanza trying to seek as much shade as possible from the scorching 35C heat.

A group of 11 riders split off the front of the field some 30km into the stage. The opportunists included Christian Meier (UnitedHealthcare), Richard Mascaranas (Team Uruguay), Walter Perez (Team Argentina), Alien Garcia (Team Cuba), Luis Mansilla (Team Chile), Carlos Oyarzun (Movistar), Weimar Roldan (Team Colombia), Simone Campagnaro (D’Angelo & Antenucci), Ben Gastauer (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Alexandro Marque (Onda) and Jose Roldan (Andalucia-Caja Granada), who was the highest placed rider in the overall classification 2:35 behind Serpa.

“We wanted to be represented in the break so that we didn’t have to chase and we wanted to sprint for Andrew Pinfold,” said Meier, a former Canadian National Champion.

“It took a lot of pressure off our guys so they could hang out and do there thing in the peloton. But, we didn’t gain that much of an advantage because when we tried to push the pace and go hard, they were speeding up behind.”

“The Andalucia rider was not too far behind in the GC and also everyone seemed keen to have a real bunch sprint today,” he added. “For a lot of guys, going in the break was a good place to put in hard training miles. It’s good for training, a good time to test your form and put in some good work.”

Mansilla won the two intermediate sprints offered at 45km and 104km during the stage and took the lead in the best sprinter competition.

The group’s lead fluctuated between one and one and half minutes for 100km. However, with 25 km to go the peloton closed down the gap in an effort to set up the sprinters for a bunch kick in Villa Mercedes. Meier attacked the group in one last-ditched effort to stay away. But his move was short lived and he was brought back with 10km to the finish line and the sprinters took over.