Quintana wins stage 4 of Tour de San Luis

Nairo Quintana proved once again that he's the premier climber in the professional peloton with a dominating stage win on the Alto El Amago mountain finish on stage 4 at the Tour de San Luis. Sergio Godoy (San Luis Somos Todos) was the only rider to answer the Colombian's attack at the base of the concluding 9.4km, category 1-rated ascent, but ultimately cracked finishing in second at 50 seconds. Darwin Atapuma (BMC) rounded out the top three at 1:32.

Such was the ferocity of Quintana' attack on the steep, sinuous, concrete-slabbed ascent that he nearly erased his entire 4:19 deficit to race leader Phil Gaimon (Garmin-Sharp). While Gaimon defended his general classification lead, his once substantial buffer earned during the opening stage has been reduced to a mere four seconds. Marc De Maar (Team UnitedHealthcare) dropped from second to third overall at 1:15.

"The team was strong and worked all day beside me," said Quintana. "If I could have taken over the leader's jersey today I would have. I felt really good after having some stomach problems [earlier in the race].

"I feel I'm a nine [on a scale of 1 to 10], I feel really good. I need to slow down my training a little bit to wait and see which of the Grand Tours I'm going to do."

The break of the day once again formed very early in the stage and contained Juan Esteban Arango (Team Colombia), Jonny Clarke (UnitedHealthcare), Juan I. Curuchet (Argentina), Julian Gaday (Buenos Aires Provincia) and Matias Presa (Uruguay).

Garmin-Sharp's Ben King and Nate Brown assumed their position on the head of the peloton as the break's early lead grew out to near seven minutes.

Gradually, however, their advantage dropped in approach of the finishing ascent of Alto El Amago.

With the lead under one minute in approach of the Cat. 3 Alto de Embasle climb in advance of the final ascent, a pair of teammates from the Chilean national team, Patricio Almonacid and Jonathan Guzman, bridged across to the break.

Once that climb started, the break shattered under the impetus of Arango. The peloton, too, split into multiple groups behind.

Arango was caught before reaching the Alto de Embasle summit as a phalanx of BMC riders neutralised the escape and rolled through the KOM, led by Peter Stetina, Manuel Quinziato and Taylor Phinney.

BMC would continue to set the pace nearly to the base of the concluding Alto El Amago ascent 10km later, but Movistar was looming and took over at the front. Soon after the steep, switch-backed ascent commenced Movistar's Nairo Quintana seized the moment and struck out alone. He was joined for a while by Sergio Godoy (San Luis Somos Todos), but the Argentine cracked, leaving Quintana alone in his element.

"Movistar led into the base, and Nairo attacked right from the bottom," said GC leader Gaimon. "I think they know that he's the best climber here and that he could do what he did. The climb was long and steep and Nairo is really good at it. He's smaller so the steeper the better for him.

"Tom Danielson stayed with me and paced me all the way up. I thought four minutes would be enough of a buffer, so we'll find out if that's the case."

Full Results