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Tour de San Luis to feature strongest field ever

While many WorldTour cyclists will start their seasons at the prestigious Tour Down Under this weekend, several big names have opted to kick things off in Argentina, racing the eighth edition of the Tour de San Luis from Jan. 20 to 26. Instead of the Australia (Simon Gerrans, Cadel Evans, Richie Porte and Rohan Dennis) versus Germany (Andre Greipel, Marcel Kittel and Jens Voigt) battle shaping up Down Under, the UCI 2.1-ranked Tour de San Luis showcases South American power, with a few European and American heavies stretching their legs as well.

Last season’s Giro d’Italia winner Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana), the 2012 Tour de San Luis champion, will have new lieutenant and compatriot Michele Scarponi alongside, while Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain/Katusha) has his spry countryman Daniel Moreno as support.

Colombians will feature prominently as last year’s pro-ranks revelation Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Carlos Betancur (Ag2r), Darwin Atapuma (BMC) and Janier Acevedo (Garmin-Sharp) look to wage battle in the mountains. Atapuma and Acevedo are debuting for their teams, but Nairo’s brother Dayer won’t be able to tackle his first race for Movistar, as he didn’t get his paperwork sorted in time. Fabio Duarte and Leonardo Duque head the Colombia team, which just learned it made the Giro d’Italia wildcard selection. The Europeans and Colombians will have to unseat incumbent champion Daniel Diaz (San Luis Somos Todos), flyer of Argentina’s flag.

There will be three summit finishes and one time trial that will determine the race. Stage 2 ends on Mirador del Potrero, Stage 4’s finish line is atop the Alto del Amago (10.5-km, 7.2 per cent average) and Stage 6 summits at the wicked Mirabor del Sol, which has pitches of 15.5 per cent on its 7-km, 8.7 per cent average slope. Stage 5’s chrono is a 19.2-km out-and-back tailor made for Taylor Phinney (USA/BMC).

There are plenty of spoils for the sprinters too, drawing Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) and a strong Omega Pharma-QuickStep team that includes Tom Boonen (Belgium) and Alessandro Petacchi (Italy). American Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) will be looking to get the season off on the good foot after a single victory last year. Movistar’s Francisco Ventoso (Spain) and Ag2r’s Davide Apollonio (Italy) will seek the spoiler roles, and one can never count out Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Cannondale), who won 21 races in 2013.

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