Breakaway survives on penultimate day in Argentina

Remco Evenepoel stays in green ahead of the final stage.

On paper, it should have been an easy day at the Vuelta a San Juan, but the reality on the road showed once again that the beauty of cycling resides in the fact that it’s impossible to predict 100% what will happen in a race.

A flat 153km-long course with a short uphill drag to the finish – this is what was on store for Saturday’s Vuelta a San Juan stage 6, which took place on a loop starting and finishing on Autodromo El Villicum. A four-man break animated the day from the opening kilometers, carving out a maximum lead of five minutes, which began to really worry the peloton inside the final 25 kilometers of the day, when the escapees still held a three-minute lead.

Despite the furious chase, all that the bunch could do was reduce the deficit to under a minute by the time they entered the circuit which was to be covered twice. The strong crosswinds, the rain and the rise to the line made for a very chaotic finale, which saw the pack split into several groups. From one of these, Maximiliano Richeze and Julian Alaphilippe sprinted to a top 10 finish, a handful of seconds behind winner Nicolas Tivani (Agrupacion Virgen De Fatima).

Neo-pro Remco Evenepoel overcome all the traps that made the last kilometers of Saturday’s stage harder than expected and concluded safely in the main bunch, keeping the green jersey he’s been wearing since stage 3 of the Vuelta a San Juan. All that stands now between the 19-year-old – ninth in the general classification – and his first important result is a flat 141.3km-long stage around San Juan, scheduled Sunday afternoon.

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/ Getty Images