Tour de San Luis: Nizzolo nets Trek's second stage

Italian Giacomo Nizzolo gave the Trek Factory Racing team its second consecutive stage win of the Tour de San Luis, taking out the sprint in Juana Koslay over Francisco Ventoso (Movistar) and Omega Pharma-Quickstep's Tom Boonen.

Nizzolo's win followed the victory of his Colombian teammate Julian Arredondo, who sailed to the stage win in the race's first mountain top finish on stage 2.

"The last 3 or 4km it was a bit uphill so the speed was not so high and all the riders tried to move up," Nizzolo explained. "In the end Lampre led-out the sprint then Cavendish started with Boonen on his wheel. I came from behind and overtook them with 100 meters to go and it was good. I had good preparation so I was pretty confident, but beating those guys was not easy.

"It's not possible to have a better start [with two stage wins in a row]. We knew we had good preparation but a start like this we couldn't imagine."

With Omega Pharma-QuickStep fielding both Mark Cavendish and Tom Boonen in Argentina there may have been a question about who the designated sprinter was, but with Cavendish leading out Boonen the team's intentions became clear.

"Tom's got his goals in the next couple of months and mine aren't until July," Cavendish told Cyclingnews. "He hasn't raced in seven months and he's in super-good form so it's possible he can win here if things go right. We're trying to get him the win."

Garmin-Sharp's Phil Gaimon retained the race lead he's held since his stage 1 breakaway, still with a 1:47 margin over Marc de Maar (UnitedHealthcare) with Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge) in third at 3:56.

"It was hot, it was long and real windy out there and I think Tyler [Farrar] got up there in the sprint so I'm really happy with the day," Gaimon told Cyclingnews following the stage. "I'm feeling fine."

After a relative respite from the heat on stage two, the third stage once again featured temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. And with nary a spot of shade on the 176km parcours from Tilisarao to Juana Koslay it would truly test one's capacity to remain hydrated.

The attacks started soon after kilometer zero was passed and shortly afterwards the break of the day formed containing Clement Koretzky (Bretagne-Seche Environnement), Julien Barrientos, Ruben Ramos and Juan Curuchet (Argentina), Patricio Almonacid (Chile) plus Ignacio Maldonado (Uruguay).

Race leader Phil Gaimon's Garmin-Sharp teammates Ben King and Nate Brown rode tempo on the front once again and their efforts kept the escape in check - its lead maxed out at 5:30 after 75km.

With 50km left to go their advantage dipped inside two minutes and the writing was on the wall for their escape attempt as the teams of the sprinters had pitched in with the chase effort. Ten kilometers later, they were absorbed.

Not only did Mother Nature deliver sweltering heat to the Tour de San Luis peloton, but strong winds then played havoc as the peloton split into several groups. The pack would ultimately re-group, but then a late race escape composed of defending Tour de San Luis champion Daniel Diaz and teammate Lucero (San Luis Sodos Tomos), Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) and Marco Marcato (Cannondale) tried to catch the sprinters' teams off guard.

They pushed out their advantage to nearly 40 seconds with 20km remaining, but the sprinters' teams would not let a second opportunity to win slip away and their attempt to steal the stage was ultimately nullified.

Video below is from today's start with Nizzolo.

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