As it prepares for its 10th edition, the Tour de San Luis has been starting to position itself not merely as the biggest race in Latin America, but as the biggest race in America as a whole.
At the presentation of the 2016 edition in Argentina on Tuesday, San Luis governor Claudio Poggi emphasised ‘continuity’ as a key concept behind the race’s steady growth in importance on the cycling calendar and its increasing ability to attract the big names of the international peloton. Nairo Quintana will once again return to the race as the star attraction, and the route bears some familiar hallmarks, but there have been a few tweaks to the make-up of the seven stages, running between January 18-24 next year.
For the first time in its history there will be a team time trial, which kicks off the race on the opening day with a relatively flat 21km out-and-back test in El Durazno.
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Then comes the traditional outing from San Luis to Villa Mercedes, which has featured in every edition of the race and almost always as the first road stage. After an early third-category climb, it’s largely downhill in advance of what should be a bunch kick and is where Fernando Gaviria burst onto the scene by outsprinting Mark Cavendish earlier this year year.
Gaviria also got the better of Cavendish in Juana Koslay, and that same finish, with its slightly uphill drag to the line, will once again make an appearance next year on stage 5. There are three outright opportunities for the sprinters, with the last coming on the short final-day stage starting and finishing in the city of San Luis. Cavendish and Gaviria are on the same team at Eitxx-QuickStep now but there is a chance they'll go head to head once more, with the Manxman's future at the Belgian squad far from certain.
Stage 3 offers a delicately poised parcours, punctuated by a second-category climb just over 10km from the finish line in La Punta. It’s an ideal launchpad for a late attack and, whether we see a stage-winning escape move or a reduced bunch sprint, it’s sure to be fast and furious on the way up and then on the way down to the line.
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