Remco Evenepoel wins Vuelta a San Juan

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Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) sealed overall victory at the 2020 Vuelta a San Juan on Sunday, while Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) beat Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-QuickStep) to the line in a bunch finish on the concluding stage.

It was Gaviria's third victory of the week, and the Colombian was full value for his win, confidently opening his sprint with 200 metres remaining and holding off Sagan, Hodeg and Manuel Belletti (Androni-Sidermec) to claim the honours.

"It's really good to start the season with three stage wins in my first race," said Gaviria. "I'm really motivated for the rest of the season and I hope I can bring these performances to the next races."

Evenepoel enjoyed an untroubled day in the white jersey, and he put the finishing touches on his all-action week in Argentina by contributing to Deceuninck-QuickStep's lead-out for Alvaro Hodeg on the final lap in San Juan. Hodeg fell short in a keenly contested mass finish, however, where the on-form Gaviria secured victory with an imposing sprint.

"Today was a chance for Alvaro and I wanted to help him," Evenepoel said afterwards. "I did everything for the lead-out and they told me I did a great job. We did the maximum but Fernando has been really strong this week."

Sagan, for his part, was parked on Gaviria's wheel in the closing kilometres, and he jostled with Hugo Hofstetter (Israel Start-Up Nation) to maintain that privilege in the finishing straight. Although the Slovak produced his best sprint of the week, he had to settle for second place, two lengths behind an unimpeachable Gaviria.

"I was on Fernando's wheel and I stayed there to the finish," Sagan joked afterwards.

UAE Team Emirates invested in Gaviria's sprint train this winter, and Max Richeze once again provided a pitch-perfect lead-out. Notable, too, was the contribution of Brandon McNulty in the penultimate kilometre, who helped to beat a path for his sprinter towards the head of the peloton.

"In the sprint, my team worked really well and put me in a really good position," Gaviria said, adding with considerable understatement: "And then I had the legs for the sprint."

The 141km stage took place over nine laps of a circuit on the outskirts of San Juan, and the commissaires opted to take the time for the general classification when the bunch took the bell with 15km remaining.

"Some teams came to talk with us, and asked what we thought about it," Evenepoel said. "We were in the front, but it seemed that in the middle of the bunch there were some problems with the crowds on the road. Safety is the priority in a bike race, so for me it was a great decision."

In the overall standings, Evenepoel finished 33 seconds clear of Filippo Ganna (Italy) and 1:01 ahead of Oscar Sevilla (Team Medellin). Brandon McNulty took fourth overall in his first race for UAE Team Emirates, a further 21 seconds back, while stage 5 winner Miguel Flores (Androni-Sidermec) was fifth.

Evenepoel laid the foundations for final overall victory with an emphatic triumph in the stage 3 time trial to Punta Negra. On stage 5, the 20-year-old was caught on the wrong side when the peloton split into echelons in the final 40km, but he remarkably clawed back a deficit of more than a minute ahead of the climb to the finish at Alto Colorado.

"It's great to start the season with a win," Evenepoel said afterwards.

He will undoubtedly look to continue in the same spirit at his next appointment, the Volta ao Algarve.

How it unfolded

For Evenepoel, the final stage of the Vuelta a San Juan amounted to something of a coronation, even if the Belgian was loath to admit as much before the start.

"I don't feel like the winner yet because there are still 140km to race," he said.

The temperature was approaching 40°C in the early part of the stage but, undeterred by the heat and the melting tarmac, Francisco Monte, Juan Ignacio Curuchet (Argentina), Leonardo Rodríguez, Daniel Lucero (Municipalidad de Rawson Somos Todos), Nathan Brown, Colin Joyce (Rally) and Riccardo Marchesini (Amore & Vita-Prodir) went on the offensive on the opening lap, quickly establishing a lead over the peloton.

Although a five-man chasing group later spent two laps gamely trying to bridge across, they never succeeded in making the junction, as the seven leaders carried a buffer of 1:40 over the rest as they entered the final five laps.

Evenepoel's Deceuninck-QuickStep team was always to the fore in controlling affairs at the head of the peloton, and as shadows began to lengthen over San Juan, they started to chip away gradually at the break's advantage.

The break's unity fragmented as the peloton drew closer, and, with 40km remaining, rally's Colin Joyce clipped away from his erstwhile allies of circumstance. The American's impressive solo effort lasted until the final lap, but he was eventually swept up by the bunch with a little under 9km to go.

Results

General classification