Arredondo wins his second Tour de San Luis mountain stage

WorldTour debutante Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) scored his second victory, and his team's third stage win of the Tour de San Luis, with another uphill victory, this time atop the Mirador del Sol. The Colombian out-sprinted local hero Sergio Godoy, who held onto the third spot on the general classification behind leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who placed third on the stage.

"I believe I'm a little bit more explosive than the other climbers and it was just a matter of waiting for the right moment," Arredondo said of his win over the home favorite. "I dedicate this victory to all the cycling fans in Latin America, especially the Colombians and Bolivarians." [Arredondo is from Ciudad Bolivar].

It has been surprising to see the 25-year-old find success so quickly after joining the WorldTour Trek Factory Racing Team, and even Arredondo was not expecting to take two stage wins in Tour de San Luis.

"I was planning on easing into the season but I've got great condition and I'm very happy to start the Giro with good form, too," he said. "For the Giro d'Italia the goal is to work harder than I did for this race because I really want to win a stage there."

Former race leader Phil Gaimon was paced to the top by his Garmin-Sharp teammate Tom Danielson, and limited his losses to Godoy to 13 seconds, thereby maintaining his second place on the GC.

"Somehow I had today what I didn't have a few days ago and wanted to have all week," Gaimon said. "The legs were awesome and Tom [Danielson] saved my ass as always."

Quintana lost four seconds to Godoy in the finale of the stage, but still keeps 1:57 of his lead over the Argentinean as well as padding his lead over second placed Gaimon. "The idea was to try to win the stage, but also to build more time between me and the second place rider," Quintana said. "In the end I wasn't able to win, but I gained time [on Gaimon].

"I was feeling strong all the way to the top, but in the final the other Colombian and the Argentinean were stronger."

How it unfolded

There was more respite from the blistering heat for stage 6 as the Tour de San Luis faced its longest stage of the race: 184.4km from Las Chacras to the mountain finish on Mirador del Sol.

Seven riders went out on the attack in the early break including Gregory Brenes (Jamis-Hagens Berman), Richard Mascarañas (Uruguay), Juan Esteban Arango (Team Colombia), Kenny Dehaes (Lotto Belisol), Jens Keukeleire (Orica Greenedge), Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne-Seche Environnement) and Larry Warbasse (BMC Racing Team).

The escapees were kept in check by the Movistar-led peloton and their maximum advantage topped out slightly over five minutes.

As the kilometres clicked by, the break began to shed riders and with 25km remaining to the beginning of the Mirador del Sol ascent only Keukeleire, Arango, Warbasse and Delaplace remained. A crash involving 20-30 riders in the peloton momentarily took the impetus out of their chase, enabling the break to push their lead up to 1:50.

The home San Luis Somos Todos team then came to the front of the peloton to lead the chase, with both a stage win plus the GC in mind as team members Sergio Godoy and Enzo Moyano started the day in third and fourth overall.

With 15km remaining, the break's lead had dropped below one minute and the writing was on the wall.

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