Tour de San Luis: Sepulveda wins stage 4 summit finish on Cerro El Amago

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Eduardo Sepulveda (Fortuneo Vital Concept) was the strongest climber during stage 4 at the Tour de San Luis, claiming the summit finish to Cerro El Amago. The Argentinean climber attacked partway up the final 10km climb and built enough of a lead to take the stage win ahead of solo chaser Janier Acevedo (Jamis) in second, Roman Villalobos (Costa Rica) in third and Dayer Quintana (Movistar) in fourth.

Sepulveda's effort was enough to bump him into the overall race lead by three seconds ahead of Dayer Quintana and 38 seconds to Rodrigo Contreras (Etixx - QuickStep).

Stage 4 was a big day for the climbers, who were treated to their first summit finish at the Tour de San Luis. The day started in San Luis and went through two intermediate sprints at Villa De La Quebrada (32.8km) and San Francisco Del Monte De Oro (117.5km), which spelled the end for the sprinters.

The route then took the peloton up the first KOM at Alto De la Candela (128.7km). That climb continued onto the summit (140km) at Alto del Amago. The last climb was 10km with an average gradient of 7.3 per cent and a maximum of 11.5 per cent.

It wasn’t long before a breakaway set off with Richard Carapaz (Strongman–Campagniolo), Ariel Sivori and Julian Gaday (Los Matanceros), Riccardo Stacchiotti (Nippo Vini Fantini), Nippo Vini Fantini (Unitedhealthcare), Ruben Ramos (Argentina), Jon Hornbeck (Holowesko-Citadel), Ignacio Sarabia (Inteja-MMR) and Emmanuel Guevara (San Luis Team).

The large breakaway held a 2:45 gap over the field with 60km to go. But as the race drew closer to the final ascent, the riders began to show how tired they were and several of them fell off the pace. The time gap then dropped to 1:45 with 16km to go.

Etixx-QuickStep led the field into the final climb but as soon as the road went up, they were swarmed by riders from Astana and Movistar. Stage 3 winner and overall leader at the start of the day, Peter Koning (Drapac), showed signs of suffering early on the climb and was dropped with 10km to go.

Movistar set the pace on the final 10km climb to Alto del Amago, but Astana put in several attacks on the steeper slopes further up the climb. Dayer Quintana (Movistar) was the first to make an official move on the climb and gained 30 seconds on a stellar chase group of select climbers. Meanwhile, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), who went into the races as one of the favourites, was dropped from that group.

Dayer Quintana’s solo effort ended when lone chaser Janier Acevedo (Jamis) caught and passed him with six kilometres remaining on the climb. Both efforts might have been a case of too much too soon because they were quickly caught by soloist Eduardo Sepulveda (Fortuneo Vital Concept) from Argentina.

As Sepulveda rode to the finish line with a solo victory, Acevedo attacked his group and rode in for second place. Villalobos out-sprinted Dayer Quintana for the last place on the podium.

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