Vuelta a San Juan: Mollema wins the overall

Image 1 of 21

Max Richeze (Quick-Step Floors) took his second consecutive stage victory Sunday at the Vuelta a San Juan with a perfectly timed flyer in the final kilometre, while Trek-Segafredo's Bauke Mollema finished safely in the bunch to seal the overall win.

It was another sweltering afternoon in the Argentine furnace, with organisers taking the decision this morning to take one 16km lap off the circuit-based course around San Juan, and it turned out to be a brutal day of racing.

Trek-Segafredo had to dig deep into their resources to defend the leader’s jersey as Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain - Merida) embarked on a day-long breakaway adventure with two lesser known local riders.

"It was a really hard day," Mollema said. "There was lots of suffering because of the weather but also because of the speed – it was a really fast stage. Nibali and the two Sep-San Juan guys did a really strong ride today. Luckily my teammates were really strong and we were able to pull it back."

The trio up front managed to open up a sizeable gap, reaching 1:30 at one point, which put Nibali in the virtual lead of the race. The gap was falling as the riders came across the line for the final lap and Mollema, 45 seconds in arrears by that point, never had to really enter panic mode.

Nibali waved goodbye to his companions and dug deep for a couple more kilometres, but the peloton was advancing and preparing for a bunch sprint – or so they thought.

Quick-Step have been the dominant force this week when it has come to the sprints, but instead of leading out Gaviria or Boonen once again, they sprung a surprise as Richeze pinged out from the pack.

The powerful Argentinian, who won yesterday’s stage 6 after getting into the breakaway, opened up a sizeable gap almost instantly and it was clear Quick-Step had executed their tactics to perfection once again. So convincing was his surge that he had plenty of time to look around, take it all in, and bask in the adulation from his home crowd.

Boonen led the pack home for second, with Androni Giacattoli's Matteo Malucelli in third. Mollema finished the race 14 seconds ahead of Oscar Sevilla (Medellin-Inder) in the general classification and 16 seconds ahead of Rodolfo Torres (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec).

Full Results