Tour de San Luis: Da Silva wins atop Comechingones

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The mighty Filo Sierras Comechingones provided a spectacular natural amphitheatre for the final summit finish of the Tour de San Luis and the script, it seemed, had been written long in advance. All week the Funvic-Sao Jose dos Campos team has been unnervingly dominant whenever the road has climbed and the Brazilian outfit’s mastery continued here, as Kleber Da Silva helped himself to the stage and Dani Diaz effectively sealed final overall victory. 

The two-part, 13-kilometre climb was a novel addition to the race – on previous visits, the stage had stopped at Mirador del Sol, some 7.5 kilometres below Saturday’s finish – and the altitude and the sheer difficulty of the finale were widely tipped to favour Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

Indeed, Quintana made one, sustained acceleration with a little over eight kilometres remaining, and though he reduced the leading group to nine riders, he was unable to shake Diaz. Shortly afterwards, Da Silva took up the pace-making at the front of the race and his striking efforts from Mirador del Sol onwards proved a strong deterrent.

As the gradient stiffened on the switchbacks in the final two kilometres, the leading group was reduced to just four riders: Da Silva, Diaz, Quintana and Colombian youngster Rodolfo Torres. Approaching the flamme rouge, Quintana summoned up one final effort, perhaps more in defiance than in hope, before Da Silva, Torres and then Diaz edged past.

Inside the final 400 metres, Da Silva managed to burn off Torres to claim the win, while Diaz did enough to take third place, six seconds back. Quintana held off Dani Moreno (Katusha) for fourth, 15 seconds back, while Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne-Séché) and a battling Joe Dombrowski (Garmin-Cannondale) proved the best of the chasers.

“It was a very hard and long climb, and it was even tougher because of all the wind,” Diaz said. “But I had phenomenal work from Kleber and that made it so much easier for me. In the finale, it was the two of us with Torres and Nairo, and it was hard work once it fragmented in the last kilometre.”

As Quintana rolled down the dirt road that led from the summit to the team vans, he seemed unsure if the glass was half-empty or half-full. He will finish the race in third place overall, and though disappointed not to have claimed a win on South American roads, he reminded reporters that his true objective is still almost months away.

“I attacked once but afterwards I just followed the wheels, my rivals were very strong,” Quintana said. “I’m not very happy because I didn’t really do anything but I’m not disappointed because I hadn’t raced for months and this is the first step towards the Tour de France.

Rapid start

The Filo Sierras Comechingones was visible on the horizon all afternoon, but its intimidating silhouette did not discourage six escapees from breaking clear soon after leaving Achiras on the short trek southwards back into San Luis province. Juan Arango (Colombia National Team), Antoine Duchesne (Europcar), Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre-Merida), Tom Danielson (Cannondale-Garmin), Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha) and Marco Canola (UnitedHealthcare) built up a maximum advantage of five minutes, which receded gently on the approach to the pretty town of Merlo, the gateway to the Sierras.

Arango was particularly active in trying to breathe life into the move when its lead was slashed to 1:30 on the third category Balneario El Rincon, and he attacked alone at the foot of the Mirador del Sol, but Canola was ultimately the final survivor out in front.

By the time the Italian was swept up with nine kilometres remaining, the peloton had already long been fractured and Quintana’s sustained effort shortly afterwards reduced the leading group to just nine riders. Diaz lost his teammate Alex Diniz to a sudden illness on Friday afternoon and he voiced concerns that he would struggle without the support of the man who had been second on GC in the finale.

He needn’t have worried. Da Silva summoned up hitherto unseen reserves to make light of the 12% slopes and dictate the rules of engagement at the head of the race for much of the final part of the climb. Diaz sat cautiously on his wheel, while Quintana by now could do little more than follow. Dombrowski, Moreno and Sepulveda were among those simply trying to keep a grip on the end of their tethers as the road cut a zig-zag path into the rock face, 2,100 metres above sea level.

Somehow, Da Silva then still had the strength to pull away for stage victory in the final kilometre, while Torres did enough to ensure he will finish in second place overall, ahead of his fellow countryman Quintana. But the mountain, and indeed the entire race, belonged to Dani Diaz and his surprising Funvic squad.

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