Tour de San Luis: Gaviria wins stage 1 in Villa Mercedes

It wasn’t the name anybody anticipated beforehand but Fernando Gaviria (Colombia National Team) seized the opportunity when it presented itself to claim victory in the bunch sprint on stage 1 of the Tour de San Luis in Villa Mercedes.

Over the course of Mark Cavendish’s career, his rivals have often spoken of the need to try and anticipate his effort in order to have any chance of overcoming him in the sprint. Not many have succeeded, and fewer still have managed it with the same aplomb that Gaviria did here.

A swirling wind made the final sprint a difficult one to judge, but with the lack of inhibition that only a sprinter of his tender years can truly possess, the 20-year-old Gaviria opted to jump away with 300 metres remaining. He immediately opened a small gap, and by the time Cavendish reacted, deep inside the final 200 metres, it was simply too late to remedy the damage.

To his credit, Cavendish fought gamely to close the deficit but he simply ran out of road and had to settle for second place on the day, beating Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) into third, while Nicolas Marini (Nippo-Vini Fantini) took fourth.

"When there was one kilometre left, I realised that maybe I could find a chance to win," Gaviria said afterwards. "I jumped with 300 metres to go and then I got a gap that was big enough to keep me in front to the line."

For Cavendish, there was disappointment but no recrimination. He confessed afterwards that he had never heard of Gaviria but he made a point of picking his way through the traffic past the finish line to seek out the youngster and offer his congratulations.

Cavendish explained that he had intended to delay his effort until the 200 metres to go banner but amid the tumult of the finishing straight, he was unable to pick it out and it was closer to 100 metres before he opened his sprint in earnest.

"When he jumped, I saw there were 300 metres to go," Cavendish said. "It was a really small sign and I was waiting for 200, I was waiting for 200, but I don’t see 200. He jumped, he went super fast. In the end, I saw the line but I didn’t see [the sign for] 200 so I had to go. In the end, it was too late."

Cavendish’s account was echoed by Modolo, who also complained about the errant banner in the finishing straight. "We were waiting for the banner at 200 metres to go but we never saw it, but the Colombian was very good, in fairness," Modolo said. "Still, this third place is a confirmation that I’m going well and hopefully I’ll get off the mark with a win soon, maybe even here in San Luis."

Following the script

On setting out from the picturesque Plaza Pringles on Monday afternoon, it felt obligatory to tune in to local station Radio Popular for a sense of occasion similar to that provided over the years by Daniel Mangéas at the Tour de France. As the line crackled back and forth from motorbike to studio, their commentary team described the early exchanges with an intensity that made it easy to forget that the peloton had yet to leave the neutralised zone.

Yet in the circumstances, such enthusiasm was perhaps understandable. Hours before the race was due to pass, the long, flat road to Villa Mercedes was dotted with locals camped out to enjoy the spectacle, and within the peloton, too, there was a certain frisson on the start line. The opening day of a new season is an unusually democratic one. Stars and water carriers alike set out with the same worries that they haven’t trained enough over the winter and the same hopes that this might be their year.

For the South American peloton, of course, the season is already in swing and it was no surprise to see riders from the America Tour to the fore in the opening hour of racing. Kleber Da Silva (Funvic-Sao Jose Dos Campos) jumped away on the gentle slopes of the third category La Cumbre after 18 kilometres, and shortly afterwards the opening break of the day chugged clear with home riders Leandro Messineo (San Luis Somos Todos) and Ignacio Pérez (Team San Juan) on board alongside David Williams (Jamis-Hagens Berman).

The race entourage had been woken in the early hours of Monday morning by a booming claps of thunder over San Luis, and it was still raining incessantly until less than an hour before the start, with deep channels of water forming in the gutters of the city streets. Mercifully, however, the rain eased off in time for the start, and although dark clouds would again loom overhead in the finale, the peloton managed to avoid even a shower on the road to San Luis.

Shortly after the intermediate sprint after 53 kilometres, the trio’s lead reached its maximum extent of four minutes but it began to recede gently thereafter. Messineo, Pérez and Williams still had three minutes of that advantage intact with 100 kilometres still to race but at that point there was a sense that Cavendish’s Etixx-QuickStep team were still only cracking their knuckles before settling down to the task in hand.

The men in black were business-like in shutting down the break over the final two hours of racing, gently shaving ten seconds off their advantage here and there before making the catch with a little over ten kilometres remaining.

A crash in the closing stages that saw Max Richeze (Lampre-Merida) among the fallers did little to halt Etixx-QuickStep’s momentum, and when a number of riders – among them Ted King (Garmin-Cannondale) attempted to nip clear in the finale – they were swatted aside with the brusqueness of a nightclub bouncer.

In the end, however, it was a young man who would almost certainly be asked to present ID at the door who emerged victorious. Already a double world champion on the track as a junior, Gaviria showed his mettle at senior level by taking gold in the omnium at the World Cup in London last month. Victory on the road against Cavendish was simply a further confirmation.

"I was really nervous before the start because I had some great riders next to me," Gaviria said. "But when you beat such big riders in a sprint, it makes it a more important victory."

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