Vuelta a San Juan: Boonen wins stage 2 sprint

Quick-Step Floors duo Tom Boonen and Fernando Gaviria reversed their roles from stage 1 with the Belgian taking out his first win of the season with the Colombian turning leadout man. Italy's Elia Viviani was again second, with Androni's Matteo Malucelli third, and now moves into the overall race lead.

Before the race there were question marks over leadership in the Belgian team, with Gaviria always strong in Argentina in January and Boonen keen to kick off his final campaign with a morale-boosting victory, and it might have been considered a risk to change the formula that had worked so well on day one.

But directeur sportif Davide Bramati pointed out that this is the first race of the season, a relatively small one at that, and that if you can’t shake things up now, when can you? In the end, the decision was richly rewarded, and the QuickStep team now have two riders riding high on confidence and a team spirit through the roof.

"It's just the start of the season, but the level in San Juan is a good one. I'm happy to win in Argentina, in front of these unbelievable fans. It’s incredible how many people came at the start and at the finish, you can really feel how much they love cycling and how passionate they are about it," said Boonen after his first road win on a disc equipped bike.

As was the case on the previous day, the riders were faced with a largely flat stage starting and finishing in the city of San Juan, 128km in length, and QuickStep once again dominated as the peloton arrived together in the finishing straight. Max Richeze wound things up, while Gaviria performed his leadout duties with just as much poise as he'd sprinted with yesterday.

Boonen moved across the road slightly as he neared the line, but Viviani had no complaints, and the Belgian's injection of power will have done wonders for his confidence - the perfect way to start his final season.

How it unfolded

There was one non-starter on the second day of racing, as Trek-Segafredo's Boy van Poppel, who was one of the sprinters to take the wrong turn on the opening day, struggled with fever and breathing problems and was deemed unfit to race in such heat, which was still in the high 30's despite the late afternoon start.

As was the case yesterday, it was a fast start to proceedings and the bunch remained together for the first intermediate sprint after 25km, won by Jose Luis Rivera (Municipalidad de Pocito), with Gaviria picking up a bonus second in third.

Things fragmented slightly after the sprint, with a third-category KOM point 10km later, where Antonio Cabrera (Chile) swept up the points as the breakaway eventually formed.

Joining him in the break was  Antonio Roberto Cabrera Torres (Chile), Pedro Cristian Gonzalez (Equipo Continental Municipalidad de Pocito), German Nicolas Tivani (Unieuro Trevigiani - Hemus 1896), and Nicolás Naranjo (Agrupacion Virgen De Fatima).

They carved out an advantage of 2:30 but, as was the case yesterday, the peloton had no trouble keeping things under control, despite the windy conditions.

Naranjo took the points at the second intermediate sprint, while the final hour was marked by a couple of abandons. There were a couple of abandons, Maicke Monteiro being taken away on a stretcher, while Valerio Agnoli, Vincenzo NIbali's Bahrain-Merida teammate, suffered a suspected broken collarbone.

With the bunch back together, the organisers managed to direct all riders to the finishing straight this time, and Boonen and Gaviria both played each other's roles from the previous day with aplomb.

Full Results