Tour de San Luis: Mark Cavendish beaten into second place on stage one by Colombia's Fernando Gaviria
Last Updated: 20/01/15 3:56am
Mark Cavendish was beaten into second place by 20-year-old Colombian Fernando Gaviria on the opening stage of the Tour de San Luis in Argentina.
Cavendish was delivered to the final 300m in Villa Mercedes in the perfect position by his team-mates but was overtaken when Gaviria launched an early sprint for victory and could not catch up, finishing half a bike length down.
It was a disappointing outcome for the Manxman, whose Etixx - Quick-Step team had controlled the peloton for much of the 186.8km stage and had provided him with an ideal lead-out.
In contrast, the win was a major coup for Gaviria, who is riding for the Colombia national team. He is the current Pan-American road race champion and a former junior omnium world champion on the track but remains a minnow against the likes of Cavendish and Sacha Modolo, who finished third on the stage.
He also claimed the race lead going into Tuesday's second stage, which takes the riders 185.3km from La Punta to Mirador de Potrero. It is the first of three summit finishes and is likely to see climbers such as Nairo Quintana come to the fore.
Cavendish said afterwards: "I think we did more than a perfect job going into the sprint, but Gaviria got the first jump and he deserved the win today.
"I saw 300m to to go, it was a real small sign. I waited for 200m, I didn't see 200m and then he jumped. He went super-fast. I saw the line, I didn't see 200m yet, but at that point I knew I just had to go. It was too late to catch up with him."
Stage one result and general classification
1 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Colombia, 4:40:13
2 Mark Cavendish (GB) Etixx – Quick-Step, same time
3 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st
4 Nicolas Marini (Ita) Nippo-Vini Fantini, st
5 Sebastian Tolosa (Arg) Buenos Aires Provincia, st
6 Oscar Gatto (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela, st
7 Yohann Gene (Fra) Europcar, st
8 Marco Canola (Ita) UnitedHealthcare, st
9 Jakub Mareczko (Ita) Italy, st
10 Armindo Fonseca (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement, st
