Tour de San Luis: Lopez wins final mountain stage

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Astana's Miguel Lopez claimed the queen stage of the Tour de San Luis, out-sprinting brothers Nairo and Dayer Quintana of Movistar atop the Filo de la Sierra de Comechingones.

Overnight race leader Eduardo Sepulveda (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) lost contact on the 7.5km final ascent, and conceded the overall lead to Dayer Quintana by 20 seconds, but kept second place over Nairo Quintana, who is 15 seconds further behind.

The Tour de San Luis heated up on stage 6, a 159.7km dash from La Toma to the summit of Filo Sierras Comechingones - the last chance for the overall contenders to shake the grasp of Sepulveda on that leader's jersey.

The soaring temperatures in the valley did not stop the peloton from hitting out hard, with multiple attacks peppering the first hour of racing. Eventually three riders escaped the grip of the bunch, with Slovenian Matej Mohoric (Lampre-Merida), Romanian Eduard Grosu (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Juan Magallanes (Mexico) making up the lucky trio.

As the peloton settled in for the stage, the trio set about building up a rather large lead that neared six minutes at the midpoint of the stage. With 70km to go the gap had ballooned to seven minutes, but a gradual ascent in the final 40km put the advantage back in the peloton's hands, bringing the lead back to five minutes.

The peloton had clawed the leaders back to three minutes when they reached the base of the Mirador del Sol, and began the 10km ascent that preceded the 7.5km climb to the Comechingones.

As the peloton approached the climb, the trio's lead was down to just two minutes, and it became clear their time out front would not last much longer.

At the head of the peloton, the local San Luis team led the way into the climb to the thrill of the fans. The effort paid off, bringing the gap to the leaders down to a minute with 10km to go.

Alfredo Lucero (San Luis Team) launched an attack with Cesar Rojas (Costa Rica) and Richard Carapaz (Strongman -Campagniolo), catching the breakaway at the final climb, with only Grosu able to maintain their pace.

The overall contenders now had four leaders to catch, with Lucero the best placed amongst them, and starting the stage 6:33 down, he was little threat to Sepulveda, but there was pride at stake.

It was not long before the peloton brought the four riders back, although it was a much reduced bunch that now led the race.

Astana and Movistar were among the main drivers of the pace as they crested the Mirador del Sol, with the Quintana brothers up against Miguel Lopez and, of course, Vincenzo Nibali. Race leader Sepúlveda, Torres, Androni Giocattoli's Rodolfo Torres and last year's race winner Dani Díaz were all present at the front.

A stiff headwind discouraged any early attacks on the final ascent of the day. The first one to break the stalemate was Torres, who began the stage 1:37 down on GC. The Colombian opened up a gap, and he was joined by Josua Gonzales (Costa Rica - 21st at 3:46) in his quest to crack open the champagne for stage and overall winner.

But the Quintana brothers and Lopez were having none of it. They caught and attacked the leaders, leaving Torres chasing behind with Sepulveda and Lampre's Ilia Koshevoy, who took fourth on the stage.

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