Vuelta a San Juan Stage 6 – Live Coverage

Good afternoon and welcome to the live coverage of stage 6 of the Vuelta a San Juan.

Today's stage is 174.5km that starts and finishes on the Autódromo Villicum.

It may look like a race well-suited to the sprinters, however, there's a climb mid-stage, and a short but steep climb near the final that could present a winning opportunity for the puncheurs in the field.

The peloton has just completed the neutral start around the Autódromo Villicum and they are now heading out onto the main highway.

The action is starting early today with a breakaway of four riders.

It looks like three more riders are trying to work their way across to the move.

The race is all back together but there are several more attacks going off the front of the field.

A new breakaway has formed that includes three riders:

Jokin Aranburu Arruti (Fundacion-Orbea)

Veljko Stojnic (Vini Zabu' KTM)

Christofer Jurado (Panama)

There is one rider trying to bridge across, but otherwise it looks like the main field is content to let this breakaway go.

152km to go

The trio out front have pushed open their gap to 1:35

If you missed the outcome of stage 5 yesterday, it was Miguel Eduardo Florez (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) who took the victory atop Alto Colorado.

You can read the full report here.

Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) maintained his overall lead at the Vuelta a San Juan. After being caught out in crosswinds near the end of the stage, he made a remarkable comeback on the final climb to keep the leader's jersey.

View the top 10 overall after stage 5

Today's race left the Autódromo Villicum and headed out onto the main highway. The peloton will race along an out-and-back circuit where there is a turn-around just after the day's category 3 climb over Alto de las Vacas (which they complete twice) before looping back to the Autódromo Villicum.

Here is a map of stage 6 of the Vuelta a San Juan.

135km to go

The breakaway of Jokin Aranburu Arruti (Fundacion-Orbea), Veljko Stojnic (Vini Zabu' KTM) and Christofer Jurado (Panama) have pushed their lead out to four minutes.

The main field is cruising along, and spread wide across the road, indicating that there is no organised chase and the teams, including Deceuninck-QuickStep with overall leader Remco Evenepoel, are happy give some leash to this breakaway.

Of the three breakaway riders, Christofer Jurado (Panama) is currently the highest placed rider in the overall classification in 68th, but more importantly, 18:02 behind Evenepoel.

While the road racing season has gotten underway at races like the Tour Down Under and Vuelta San Juan, cyclo-cross racers are competing in the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships this weekend in Dübendorf, Switzerland.

Shirin van Anrooij (Netherlands) became the first junior women's cyclo-cross world champion. You can view the full results here.

Ryan Kamp, also from the Netherlands, rode away with the U23 men's cyclo-cross world championship title. You can view the full results here.

And to cap off a great day of racing for the Dutch,  Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado captured the elite women's world title ahead of her compatriots Annemarie Worst and Lucinda Brand. You can read the full report here.

Back to the Vuelta a San Juan, the gap to the breakaway has dropped slightly and is now 3:11 with 116km to go.

If you're wondering who is responsible for bringing this gap down to now under 3 minutes, it's a combination of efforts from UAE Team Emirates, Israel Start-Up Nation, and Puertas de Cuyo.

Intermediate sprint #1 - Caucete

Juarado picked up top points in the first intermediate sprint without contest.

Argentina's Daniel Juarez (Agrupacion Virgin de Fatima-Saddledrunk) is currently leading the points classification with 17 points, and he is back in the main field. Juardo was 11th in that classification at the start of the day.

The breakaway will be approaching the mid-stage climb over Alto de las Vacas, a category 3 ascent that they will complete twice before heading back toward the Villicum Autodrome.

Guillaume Martin (Cofidis Solutions Credits) is currently leading the mountain competition. He's tied with runner-up Cesar Paredes (Team Medellin) with 20 points each.

Meanwhile, back in the field, Tom Bohli (UAE Team Emirates) is putting his time trial ability to good use, pulling the peloton along and keeping the gap to the breakaway in check.

This weekend marked the kick-off to the Women's WorldTour at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, where Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb) took the biggest win of her career. You can read the full report here.

The men's WorldTour edition of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race will take place on Sunday, and you can check back with Cyclingnews for the full report, results and gallery.

The riders are closer to the top of the KOM, but it looks like Christofer Jurado (Panama) has lost contact with Jokin Aranburu Arruti (Fundacion-Orbea) and Veljko Stojnic (Vini Zabu' KTM).

KOM - Alto de las Vacas

Christofer Jurado (Panama) had a flat tire but was able to get a wheel change and return to the breakaway just in time to take full points at the KOM line.

The breakaway is working hard to hold a gap but it's falling fast as Argentinean team Puertas de Cuyo lead the charge behind. 

Gap is down to 30 seconds.

The main field is travelling at roughly 52kph on the flatter sections.

The Puertas de Cuyo team have some help from the Venezuela national team, and the gap is closing down faster.

85km to go - Breakaway is caught

Jokin Aranburu Arruti (Fundacion-Orbea), Veljko Stojnic (Vini Zabu' KTM), and Christofer Jurado (Panama) look back to see the peloton right behind them. They three riders sit up and are absorbed into the main field.

As expected there is a lot of attacking at the front of the field, not only because the breakaway was caught, but because they are on the second KOM up Alto de las Vacas.

KOM - Alto de las Vacas

Oscar Sevilla (Medellin) took the top points ahead of mountain classification leader Guillaume Martin (Cofidis Solutions Credits), while Juan Pablo Dotti (SEP de San Juan) was third.

The trio had a small separation over the top of the climb, but a reduced field caught up. 

The peloton is now in tatters as they race down the gradual descent, which is wide-open, exposed and windy.

Back on the flatter roads and the field is coming back together.

Overall leader Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) doesn't look to be in any danger. He's riding right at the front.

Teams Bora-Hansgrohe, Israel Start-UpNation, Androni and Rally are all at the front with 73km to go.

Rider are now taking this opportunity to grab water bottles from the caravan behind.

It looks like a new breakaway is slowly forming with four riders.

The riders in the new breakaway are:

Mirco Maestri (Bardiani CSF Faizane’) 

Andrea Di Renzo (Vini Zabu' KTM) 

Laureano Rosas (Puertas de Cuyo) 

Agustin Fraysse (Argentina) 

The four riders have managed to push their gap out to just under a minute with 66km to go.

Bora-Hansgrohe and UAE Team Emirates have each put one rider at the front of the field, who are followed by the entire Deceuninck-QuickStep team.

It's 38 Celsius today in San Juan, and it will feel much hotter out on the tarmac because the peloton are racing along wide-open and exposed roads with no shade. The sun will be beating down on the finishing race track at Villicum.

Last year it was Germán Tivani (Agrupacion Virgen De Fatima) who pulled off a shock win on stage 6 of the Vuelta a San Juan. He was the winner of a three-up sprint to deny the WorldTour teams a victory on the Autodromo Villicum.

There are just over 50km to go and the breakaway of Mirco Maestri (Bardiani CSF Faizane’), Andrea Di Renzo (Vini Zabu' KTM), Laureano Rosas (Puertas de Cuyo)  and Agustin Fraysse (Argentina) still have a minute on the field.

Tom Bohli (UAE Team Emirates), Fernando Barcelo Aragon (Cofidis) and Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) are doing all of the work in setting the pace at the front of the field.

Mirco Maestri (Bardiani CSF Faizane’), Andrea Di Renzo (Vini Zabu' KTM), Laureano Rosas (Puertas de Cuyo)  and Agustin Fraysse (Argentina) are taking equal turns at about 48kph.

The gap is still holding at 1 minute.

42km to go.

Intermediate sprint #2

Agustin Fraysse (Argentina) took top points in the second intermediate sprint.

Daniel Juarez (Agrupacion Virgin de Fatima-Saddledrunk) is leading the points classification with 17 points, and Fraysee started the day in sixth place with three points.

35km to go and the four riders are holding a one minute gap.

Overall leader Remco Evenepoel is looking very comfortable surrounded by his Deceuinck-QuickStep team near the front of the main peloton.

It's still UAE Team Emirates and Bora-Hansgrohe doing much of the pace-setting.

In fact, it's still Tom Bohli (UAE Team Emirates), Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Maximo Eliecer Rojas (Venezuela) leading the peloton. While Deceuninck-QuickStep sit just behind them.

The breakaway are racing back into a residential area and fans line the streets to watch the race.

The gap to the breakaway is slowly dropping, now down to 45 seconds with 25km to go.

There are long, straight roads back into the Autodromo Villicum, and the peloton can now see the four breakaway riders. 

Likewise, if the breakaway riders looked over their shoulders they could probably see the looming peloton behind, led by Tom Bohli (UAE Team Emirates), Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Maximo Eliecer Rojas (Venezuela)

The peloton have been travelling at almost 50kph for the last 10 minutes, and that is only going to get faster the closer they get to the track.

They make a left-hand turn onto a smaller two-lane road. Now we can start to see some of the other teams getting organised such as Rally, Movistar.

The gap is down to 16 seconds.

Cesar Paredes (Medellin) jumps out of the field in a solo effort.

Andrea Di Renzo (Vini Zabu' KTM) attacks the breakaway, as the rest of the riders are reabsorbed into the main field.

Breakaway is caught - 16km to go

All of the breakaway riders have been caught. There have been no new attacks just yet, as the sprinters' teams form what will be the beginnings of their lead-outs.

Deceuninck-QuickStep are centre-road with Remco Evenepoel, to the right are Bora-Hansgrohe and UAE Team Emirates. To the left of Deceuninck-QuickStep are Israel Start-Up Nation and Rally.

The peloton has separated around a median on the road before making a right-hand turn.

There are only 10km to go

Bora-Hansgrohe and Androni are now leading the way, and riders from Medellin with Oscar Sevilla are moving forward.

The purple colours of Bardiani are also moving up

They are on a small climb before entering the track and Movistar move forward.

There are 6km to go, but the field is battling gusty winds on exposed roads. There is a long straight, gradual incline toward the track and it must seem like it's never-ending. 

Androni has the field tight against the left-side gutter, and riders are trying to move up into the wind on the right-hand side of the road.

The field has turned off onto a right-hand curve and onto the race track, 4.3km to go.

Israel Start-Up Nation have four riders leading the way, followed by Deceuninck-QuickStep.

The field cuts cross the corners of the track, 1.5km to go

They are in a long line, nearly single file. There won't be much moving up at this point.

Israel Start-Up Nation are still on the front

UAE Team Emirates moves ahead

There's an attack from Deceuninck-QuickSteps' Zdenek Stybar!

He might just make it

And he does it! 

Zdenek Stybar wins stage 6 of the Vuelta a San Juan

Zdenek Stybar held off a dismantled peloton to take the win ahead of Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) and Rudy Barbier (Israel Start-Up Nation).

Vuelta a San Juan stage 6 - Brief results

Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) leads the overall classification into the stage 7 finale in San Juan on Sunday.

"It was a good day today. We won again with Stybar and so it was a perfect day," said Evenepoel. "I won't celebrate [the overall title] yet, there's still one more stage tomorrow."

The Vuelta a San Juan will end with stage 7's 141.3km race in San Juan on Sunday.

Remco Evenepoel carries the overall leader's jersey into the finale stage 7 at the Vuelta a San Juan.

Join us tomorrow for more live coverage of the finale 141.3km race in San Juan.