Vuelta a San Juan: Max Richeze wins stage 6

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Argentina's Max Richeze (Quick-Step Floors) sprinted to victory in the heat-shortened sixth stage of the Vuelta a San Juan Saturday after a long, hot afternoon out in the break.

The 33-year-old jumped away from a larger escape group halfway through the stage, getting clear with Oliveiro Troia (Abu Dhabi) and Nicolas Tivani (Unieuro Trevigiani). The trio held off the rest of the field to contest the stage victory amongst themselves in Pocito. Fast-finishing Richeze won the three-man sprint convincingly ahead of Troia, with Tivani in third.

"Winning here gives me huge joy, one year after wearing the leader's jersey at the Tour de San Luis. I love the trust of the team and I want to thank them for believing in me," said Richeze, joining Quick-Step Floors teammates Tom Boonen and Fernando Gaviria in winning a stage at the race. "My job was to work for Fernando and Tom, and to get such an opportunity really meant a lot for me. It's a great day not only because it was the Difunta Correa stage – which is very important for the Argentinean people – but also because my brothers are here in the race, while my mother and father came at the finish, and to share this victory with them is something very special."

Trek-Segafredo's Bauke Mollema finished safely in the peloton to retain his leader's jersey heading into Sunday's sixth and final stage.

How it unfolded

An early break went but whereas the trend has been for the South American Continental riders to pile in, this time there was WorldTour company, with Manuele Boaro (Bahrain-Merida) and Oliveira Troia (UAE Abu Dhabi) joining Richeze.

The other riders in the 10-man group were: Ruben Ramos, Juan Molina (both Argentina), Emiliano Ibarra (Sep-San Juan) Kazushige Kuboki (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Omar Azzem (Los Cascos Esco-Agropla), Julian Cardona (Medellin-Inder), and Nicolas Tivani (UniEuro Trevigiani-Hemu)

As the riders made their way out into the exposed flat landscape towards the end point of Vallecito, Molina took the first intermediate sprint, while Tiviani took the second on the way back to Pocito. In between there was a double ascent of the short and gentle third-category Cuesta de las Vacas, and Azzem crossed the KOM point first on both occasions – though Franco López already had the classification sewn up.

By that point the organisers had decided to truncate the course, and the complexion of the race changed.

The break split up, with Richeze taking Troia and Tiviani for company. The second group battled hard but the front three were working well together and their gap increased towards the two-minute mark.

Their gap back to the peloton was more important still, and with around 40km to go it was up at nearly six minutes, with thoughts of a stage win beginning to crystalize in their minds. Crucially, QuickStep, who have shown themselves to be the strongest team on the flat stages, did not have to take any responsibility in the bunch.

Trek-Segafredo, defending the Mollema's leader's jersey, did the bulk of the work in the closing stages, keeping things under wraps, and though the gap came down, it was clear the leading trio would contest the victory.

Richeze was the red-hot favourite and duly got the better of Troia, with Tivani having nothing left at the end, to continue Quick-Step' dream week in Argentina.

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