Loddo claims San Luis finale

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Alberto Loddo (Androni-Giocattoli) captured his second stage win, the fourth for the team, in a mass gallop to the line during the seventh and final stage of the Tour de San Luis on Sunday. The Italian outpaced Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) who placed second and Francisco Pacheco (Xacobeo-Galicia) in third.

"My legs felt so painful today," said Loddo at the end of the seven-day stage race. "My team worked so, so well for me today and I had to get this victory for them. The sprint was very difficult and so many teams were at the front. But we were very determined as a team to win the sprint. This was a great week for our team."

The top prize went to Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) however, the Italian capturing a hard-fought overall title at the fourth annual Tour de San Luis. He moved into the overall leader's jersey following his stage four win in the 19.5km time trial and maintained a 28-second lead ahead of runner up Jose Serpa (Androni-Giocattoli) with 1:19 separating him and Rafael Valls (Footon-Servetto) in third.

"The last day again, my team did truly great work," Nibali said. "I am very happy with this victory and so is our Directeur Sportif [Mario Scirea]. We kept the break away always at two and half minutes to be safe. The finish of the race today was very dangerous and I had to be very attentive with the turns and the downhill and all the riders who want a stage win. But, it worked out very well."

Valls won stage two atop the Mirador De Los Funes ascent, the first of three mountaintop finishes. He went on to capture the event's mountains classification. "I won a stage and that started us in the overall lead," Valls said. "To win the mountain jersey, I'm happy with that and I'm happy with how our team rode this week."

Androni-Giocattoli was undoubtedly the strongest team, winning four of the seven stages along with the event's Best Overall Team classification. "I am very happy with the team because they executed their tactics perfectly this week," said directeur sportif Gianni Savio. "Congratulations to Alberto Loddo for two great victories and to the whole team for working very well. To win four stages, place second in the individual overall and win the overall best team, that is very good and I am very happy."

"Our riders are in good condition and we threw everything we had at Vincenzo Nibali," he added. "Nibali had to work on the climbs alone because his team was working very hard before the climbs during the stages. He showed that he is strong and equally intelligent, always there when he had to be. For this, I want to congratulate him."

Runner up in two stages, Danilo Napolitano expressed his disappointment for not producing a victory for his Katusha team during the seven-day stage race. "I am not so pleased," Napolitano said. "Today was very fast, I felt good and I was hoping to bring a win for my team and I did not. But, it is still only January and it is not always possible to be in the fastest form. For sure, this race provided very good training for everyone. Now I will look to the Tour of Qatar."

Overall contenders confused over time bonus location

The seventh and final day of the Tour de San Luis offered the peloton a fast 167km stage on a 58km circuit in and around the host city of San Luis. Liquigas-Doimo's Vincenzo Nibali started the day as the overall leader, 28 seconds ahead of Jose Serpa and 1:19 ahead of Rafael Valls.

Further down in the classification a cluster of overall contenders from fifth through seventh place with the same time at 2:15 behind the leader. Those riders were Santiago Botero (Team Colombia), Jackson Rodriguez (Androni-Giocattoli) and Jorge Giacinti (team Argentina) respectively. Michael Rasmussen (Miche Silver Cross) sat in seventh place a mere one second behind the others.

The first King of the Mountain point was located 17km into the first of three circuits. Botero and Rasmussen attacked one another in pursuit of the valuable time bonuses. However, confusion arose over the intermediate time bonuses which weren't offered at the top of the mountain. They were available five kilometres after the mountaintop, at the intermediate sprint line won by former Olympic Madison gold medalist, Walter Perez (Team Argentina).

"I don't know what happened," Botero said. "I saw Rasmussen sprint so I started sprinting too. I thought maybe there were time bonuses there but there weren't any. I think we were confused."

A breakaway of seven riders escaped the peloton following the two category sprints to include David Gutierrez (Footon-Servetto), Oleksandr Kvachuk (ISD-Neri), Matias Medici (Scott-Mercondes), Jose de Segovia (Xacobeo-Galacia), Luca Mazzanti (Katusha), Javier Ramirez (Andalucia-Cajasur) and Fortunato Baliani (Miche Silver Cross).

By the end of the second lap, the break away of seven riders gained a maximum of three minutes. None of the riders contested the king of the mountain zone of the intermediate Sprints. With less than 50 kilometres to go, one more lap, the Liquigas-Doimo team set a tempo fast enough to hold the breakaway at a sage time advantage, including its sprinter Francesco Chicchi.

The leaders received help from other teams such as Androni-Giocattoli that had ambitions to win the final stage with sprinter Alberto Loddo. With one rider in the break, Katusha was exempt from chasing and its sprinter Danilo Napolitano sat protected from the wind inside the peloton waiting for the final kilometres of the race. The breakaway riders were reeled back in on the lengthy descent toward the finish line.