Aguilar, Crespo give Funvic one-two on final stage

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Hector Aguilar (Funvic) brought his team a victory during the final stage sprint at the Tour de San Luis on Sunday. The Uruguay fast man out-paced teammate Marco Crespo in second and Mauro Richeze (Team Argentina) in third.

"I have to give a big salute to my teammates for their work in the end of the race today," Aguilar said. "There were a lot of good riders working at the finish of the race. But we were able to finish first and second and I'm really happy about that."

Marco Arriagada (Team Chile) was crowned the winner of the fifth annual Tour de San Luis; the outstanding climber finished the seven-stage race 38 seconds ahead of Jose Serpa (Androni-Giocattoli) and 1:49 minutes ahead of Josue Moyano (Team Argentina) in third.

"I'm very happy to win this stage race here in Argentina," said Arriagada. "I have to say thank you to my team for the work they did for me this week. The stages with the big climbs were well-suited to my ability. It was a hard stage today and we stayed at the front in the end mainly to stay out of trouble and safe."

Antonio Piedra (Andalucia-Caja Granada) secured the best climber's jersey by two points ahead of his nearest rivals, Jonathan Millan (Colombia). Arriagada's teammate wrapped up the best sprinter's competition with a six-point advantage while Argentina's national squad won the overall team competition placing four riders inside the top 10.

"There were a lot of climbs in this edition of the tour and a lot of climbing for our team," said Argentina's directeur sportif, Juan Carlos Haedo. "Moyano was very strong this week and I think he has a big future ahead of him. As for the team, we knew it would be a hard stage race and came prepared for that."

Tour de San Luis ends in sweltering heat

The peloton rolled to the start of stage seven of the Tour de San Luis in the highest temperatures all week. In addition to battling heat of 40 degrees Celsius the final stage offered 167km spread over three circuits that began in San Luis and traveled out to El Trapiche before returning to San Luis for what has traditionally led to a blistering downhill sprint finish.

Pablo Lastres (Movistar) won the first King of the Mountain, located 17km into the opening lap. The ascent was quickly followed by the first intermediate sprint that offered points and valuable time bonuses for the top three riders.

Luis Mansilla (Team Chile), who was sitting in 10th place overall, won the three bonus seconds. Josue Moyano (Team Argentina) and Eros Capecchi (Liquigas-Cannondale) were tied for time in third and fourth place overall. Moyano took second place along with the two-second bonus to secure third place in the overall classification. Capecchi placed third in the sprint and gained a one-second bonus.

A breakaway of nine riders split off the front of the field halfway through the first lap. Those riders included Juan Lucero and Cristian Martinez (Team Argentina), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Jackson Rodriguez (Androni-Giocattoli), Jesus Rosendo (Andalucia-Caja Granada), David Clarke and Iker Camano (Endura Racing), Patxi Vila (De Rosa-Flaminia), Fortunato Baliani (D'Angelo & Antenucci) and Christian Meier (UnitedHealthcare).

The riders gained a maximum of 4:30 by the end of the second lap and swallowed up the remaining KOM and sprint points. The break was doomed on the last lap as teams rallied at the front of the field to put their fast men in good position to sprint on the predominantly downhill, 20km run in to the finish line.

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