Tour de San Luis 2014 - Stage 7
The Tour de San Luis concluded today with the seventh stage, a 148.1 kilometre race from San Luis to Hito del Bicentenario. It looked likely to end in a sprint finish, and Nairo Quintana of Movistar Team looked like he would protect his thirty five second lead to win his first Tour de San Luis title.
Overnight, more details of crashes had been revealed from the previous stage. It was revealed that Tyler Farrar had been hit by the team car from the continental outfit Buenos Aires Provincia and had subsequently crashed. This adds to another incident from the race involving Buenos Aires Provincia, as Kenny Dehaes was punched in the eye at the conclusion of stage three.
Nairo Quintana jumped out of the peloton at the first King of the Mountains point to seal the competition, the young Colombian was obviously not satisfied with just the overall classification and a stage.
A breakaway did manage to get away, including Carlos Betancur of AG2R La Mondiale, but on a day where a sprint finish was available, the race was always going to be well controlled. Mark Cavendish of Omega Pharma-Quickstep was one of the named favourites, along with double-Tour de France points classification winner Peter Sagan.
However, on the day it was Sacha Modolo of Lampre-Merida who took out the victory infront of Peter Sagan of Cannondale, and Modolo's teammate Max Richeze. Quintana finished safely to win the title by 43 seconds, infront of American Phillip Gaimon. He also won the King of the Mountains classification. Adam Yates of Orica-GreenEDGE finished as the best young rider, proving a good signing for the Australian outfit.
The debate as to whether professionals should start their season in Australia or Argentina will wage on, but it can't be long before the Tour de San Luis gets promoted to WorldTour status, given the amount of big names here this week.