After riding fairly conservatively yesterday, but admittedly strongly on the time trial Isidro Nozal
is close to taking the GC win for UPC who are really beginning to build some momentum.
Today should be another for the sprinters though the circuit is not perfect for the fast men involving some slight gradients. Also with time gaps opening up yesterday hope springs eternal for a breakaway win though nothing really concrete emerges before the first sprint.
Andrea Masciarelli
takes it from Iván Melero
and Wilson Rincón
They just roll over the second sprint which gave Kimmo Kananen
the top points over David Belda
and Andreas Anderegg
The activity does finally lead to a large break which gets over five minutes of a gap with 60km to go.
But again their gains will be limited as Dyson and Vodafone chase hard for their in form sprinters Gaywood and Murray.
Agudelo nabs the final sprint prime from Kananan and Van Winkel, but with 25km to go the gap is under 2 minutes. As we get into the final stages a sprint seems inevitable but two fairly decent sprinters Mohammad Umardi Rosdi
and Marco Bandiera
decide they have a better chance by nipping away.
Indeed they hook up with the break and just may have stolen a march as for some reason the break is still 50 seconds clear under the five km to go banner.
However Vodafone and Dyson have kept calm and set up sprint trains for Thomas Murray
and Simon Gaywood
The organised pace manages to overhaul the disorganized breakaway, but Dyson are disrupted by this whereas Vodafone move smoothly around the riders.
As we come under the kite Robbie Williams
moves aside and Murray launches he has Selig, Kohler and Szaniawski with him. Surely it is down to these five.
Murray's kick is sound and when in a good position in this race the Brit has looked very good.
Looking at he battle for second Gaywood has weaved his way through only to be looking at another roadblock in Szianawinski, Stevic is moving inside the best break rider Colby. Friedman could be losing his green jersey as he is some way back.
Murray takes a comfortable win and unbeknownst to him possibly the points jersey too.
Stevic just nips past Kohler for third, he carries Colby up to 5th just behind teammate Selig who is 4th.
Friedman comes 12th and Gaywood 7th with Thorson and Hutchinson out of the points. It means Murray takes the points jersey from Freidman in second and Stevic moves up to 3rd.
Nozal rode near the front all day takes the overall win here in San Juan, a fine win in the Autumn of his career.
