Vuelta a San Juan: Gaviria wins stage 2, takes overall lead

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Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) opened his account for 2020 with a thundering sprint win in Pocito on stage 2 of the Vuelta a San Juan. He had to do without the services of lead-out man Max Richeze, who was held up in a crash in the finale, but he had the nous to find a gap in the finishing straight and he then produced a blistering turn of speed to claim victory.

The Colombian beat Nicolas Naranjo (Agrupacion Virgen De Fatima) and Marco Benfatto (Bardiani-CSF Faizane) to the finish line outside the Estadio Bicentenario on the outskirts of San Juan, but perhaps the quality of his triumph could be best measured by the way he moved clear of Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) once he hit his stride within sight of the line.

It was Gaviria’s third time in succession to win on this very finishing straight. A year ago, it was the site of his first win following his move to UAE Team Emirates, but his campaign was later blighted by a knee injury that ended his Giro d’Italia prematurely and ruled him out of the Tour de France. Gaviria initially struggled on his return to action, but a brace of wins at the Tour of Guangxi undoubtedly shortened his winter.

 “I can’t deny I’m in good form,” Gaviria said after taking a seat in the press room near the finish line. “Since the training camp in December, I’ve been doing some specific work and watching my diet. I’m in good condition and I hope to continue like that on the way to the Classics.”

After disappointment in Sunday’s opening sprint in San Juan on this occasion, Gaviria found his range in Pocito. He was some way back as the peloton hurtled into the final kilometre, but he took advantage of the long and wide finishing straight to move up as the finish banner reared into view. The crispness of his acceleration augurs well for the season ahead. The intensity of Gaviria’s celebration, meanwhile, was ample demonstration of the weight a sprinter places on beginning his campaign on a high note.

Piet Allegaert (Cofidis) claimed fourth on the stage ahead of Sagan, while Travis McCabe (Israel Start-Up Nation) came home in sixth. McCabe’s teammate and overnight leader Rudy Barbier was unable to repeat his surprise success of the previous day. He concedes the leader’s jersey to Gaviria, though he remains in second overall on the same time as the Colombian.

Manuel Belletti (Androni-Sidermec) lies in third, 4 seconds back, while the bulk of the general classification favourites are  – thanks to the discretion of the race jury – 10 seconds behind Gaviria. One exception is Julian Alaphilippe, who sat up in the final kilometre for the second day running after helping to tee up the sprint. The Frenchman crossed the line 20 seconds down, and is half a minute behind Gaviria on GC ahead of Tuesday's 15.1km time trial to Punta Negra.

How it unfolded

After Sunday’s tumultuous finish, the commissaires belatedly decided to turn the clocks back to zero and award fallers such as Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) the same time as stage 1 winner Rudy Barbier (Israel Start-Up Nation). For one crash victim, however, recapturing lost time was scant consolation: Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) injured both wrists when he went down in the late crash and, fearing a fracture, he opted not to start stage 2 in Pocito. 

The Vuelta a San Juan peloton was once again flagged away from the start beneath blazing sunshine, though dark clouds gradually accumulated overhead as late afternoon stretched languidly into early evening.

The early break forged clear in the opening kilometres, but Robinson Ruiz (Peru) suffered the misfortune of crashing out of the move after a dog crossed his path. The Peruvian was able to remount but sat up to await the bunch.

The remaining escapees – Christofer Jurado (Panama), Daniel Juarez, Leandro Velardez (Agrupacion Virgin de Fatima-Saddledrunk), Iker Ballarin Manso (Fundacion-Orbea), Robin Carpenter (Rally Cycling), Royner Navarro, Hugo Ruiz (Peru) and Francisco Monte (Argentina) – opened a buffer of two minutes over the peloton before the sprinters’ teams set about the task of pegging them back.

In the final 50km, the break’s unity fragmented as their lead melted. After a flurry of attacks, Carpenter and Jurado found themselves at the head of the race with a lead of 50 seconds over the peloton with 20km remaining. With Bora-Hansgrohe and Deceuninck-QuickStep forcing the pace behind, however, there was an inevitability about their fate, and they were swept up with 10km to go.

By then, Gaviria was already without Richeze, who was among those delayed by a crash with 13km remaining. He acknowledged afterwards that he will win more with his lead-out man than without him, but on this familiar run-in, Gaviria was able to guide himself into a winning position.

Results

General Classification