sutty68 wrote:
Liking the new jersey

Tamijo wrote:
Good luck with the new season - new jerseys, hope you get a good load of WT races.

katulen wrote:
Awesome new jersey and rly looking forward for next update.

Tamijo wrote:
Good luck in Argentina

Our new chapter starts in the city of San Luis, capital city of the province of the same name. Finish point is Villa Mercedes, after a long and steady descent after the first intermediate sprint.

There are not enough intermediate sprints for a breakaway guy to secure the points jersey for tomorrow, so these guys concentrate on the KoM jersey. Jamis' Kerry Werner outsprints Orica's Artem Nych for the red mountain kit. But there's nothing more to win for them, as the sprinter teams soon start working, looking for an early win here.

Despite a crap lead-out by his loved team buddy Démare, French (boxing) champion Nacer Bouhanni still finds the legs to overtake an extremely disappointed Fabio Felline at the line. Bonafazio grabs the last podium spot, while Martínez is our top finisher in 9th place.

The second up and down stage takes us from Tilisarao to Terrazas de Portezuelo. This ecological building complex (the first in the country) at the outskirts of the city of San Luis was inaugurated in 2010, 200 years after the May Revolution, the first successful revolution in South American Independence process.

Once again Nych has made it into the breakaway, and today he also grabs the KoM jersey. Along with the intermediate sprint jersey that makes two for him at the moment.

Right before the 10 km banner, the escapees still have a gap of 1'30". The pack seems to hesitate and Fraile launches a counter attack. His move is neutralised and the breakaway is reeled in afterwards.

Fraile has kept a position at the front of the peloton and leads out Martínez. Bouhanni and Bonifazio are in a good position too, with Cimolai coming as well at the right hand side. Just over 2 kms to go.

Etixx' Davide Cimolai was allowed to tries his luck at this uphill sprint finish and he thanks the team staff with a second consecutive sprint win. Astana's Bonifazio sprints to the second place and the leader's jersey, while Martínez grabs 3rd!

katulen wrote:
A ninth and a top 3 - Are we gonna see Martinez taking his victory in 3rd stage ?

Next up is the first summit finish of this year, at Mirador del Potrero. The second category climb may be too far away from the finish to have any significance apart from the KoM you can earn there.

Tomorrow there will once again be a new guy in the mountain jersey; this time it's LottoNL - Jumbo's Sebastian Langeveld who collects most of the points.

Meanwhile, IAM Cycling has started working for their leader Carlos Alberto Betancur. The Ruralvía guys do their job and keep Guerreiro and Bilbao near the front.

But Guerreiro blows quickly, like really quickly. Bilbao maintains a good position though on the steepest ramps. Sky and Astana seem to have the upper hand for today's stage...

... and in the end Astana's Andrea Manfredi who shows he's really good potential for short and steep climbs towards the line. It's his first big(ger) wins after his triumph in last year's Coppa Sabatini.

Austria's top talent Gregor Mühlberger beats a declining Chris Froome for the second place and he is also the new leader in the general classification.

1		Andrew Talansky	Trek Factory Racing	25'16"
2		Jérôme Coppel	Movistar Team	+ 4"
3		Fabio Felline	Bora - Argon 18	+ 10"
4		Lars Boom	Team Sky	+ 19"
5		Simon Yates	Team Sky	+ 26"
6		Lukas Meiler	Trek Factory Racing	+ 33"
7		Daniel Martin	Astana Pro Team	+ 37"
8		Silvan Dillier	IAM Cycling	+ 40"
9		Chris Froome	Team Sky	+ 42"
10		Luigi Miletta	Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec	s.t.

A disappointing stage for us. No top 10 for Guerreiro, but still he manages to improve his GC spot. Bilbao drops out of the top 10 to place 14.

sutty68 wrote:
The guys look to be riding well in Argentina

Tamijo wrote:
A podium and a top 10 so far, not bad at all.
Can Pello Bilbao make it into top ten at 5-6.?

Three stages to go here and we don't have a rider left in the top 10 of the GC. Waiting and trying to follow is not going to yield us anything, so Omar Fraile joins the breakaway, our first rider in there this year.

He manages to drop his breakaway companions, but over the top he's joined by Poels, the only one who has managed to outclimb the other favourites.

And outsprinting an exhausted Fraile is an easy job for Poels. Yellow for the Dutchman, second place and a jump to 6th in the GC for Fraile. Guerreiro finishes in the second group along with previous leader Froome.

Fraile just has to survive the Mirador del Sol climb in order to earn us our first top 10 GC spot of the year. But it's gonna be one hell of a ride he'll have to put in.

The pace at the front is too hot for both Fraile and Guerreiro, but in the end he does manage to secure his top 10 spot. Guerreiro finishes with Froome and climbs to the 12th place, securing the white jersey.

At the front, Barguil takes a third stage win for Etixx, just before GC winner Poels.

The last stage is won by Smartstop's Kevin Predatsch from the breakaway, who outsprints among others Sébastien Chavanel and Pello Bilbao, who grabs fifth.

Tamijo wrote:
Got the top 10, nice move form Fraile with that breakaway.
Congrats getting Wildcard to Tirreno