Tour de San Luis 2015 – Stage 3 Preview
By David Hunter
Stage 3 and the riders travel 176.3km from Concaran to Juana Koslay, for an uphill sprint.
This is the fourth consecutive year the race has finished with this climb. The former winners are Chicchi, Mattia Gavazzi and Nizzolo. Seems like the Italians like it here!
The last 3km rises at an average of 2%, with the final kilometre at 3.5%. This is a very good finish for a few riders, most of them are Italian!
Sacha Modolo loves an uphill sprint but he’s never been successful on this climb. As Cavendish is looking strong, this is probably his best chance of a stage win.
Cavendish will probably be the Etixx card, but Michal Kwiatkowski is another who could do well here. The finish is just about at the limit off Cav’s powers, but he can never be written off.
My favourite rider, Mauro Finetto, is another who’ll love this finish. When I spoke to him before the race, he was not convinced he would have the form to take a stage win. If not, the Italian squad also have Enrico Battaglin. Yet another Italian who’ll like this finish. The top 5 could resemble a local Italian race, not San Luis!
Yet another Italian with a good chance is Oscar Gatto. He was 6th in stage 1, on a flat finish, this one is more his style. This is a great chance for his first win with his new team, Androni Giocattoli.
The surprise of stage 1, Fernando Gaviria, certainly can’t be ruled out. The young Colombian sprint star, will be eager to prove that his win was no fluke!
Other fast men, who like a hard sprint are Hutarovich, McLay and Gene.
Prediction Time
The teams should bring the race together for a sprint. Based on the talents of the riders, not current form, the favourites should be Modolo, Cavendish, Finetto and Gatto. We can’t really be certain of the form of these riders but I still think they will be the main challengers. At 3km, the climb might just be too long for Modolo and Cav, so I’m going for Mauro Finetto!
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