Alex Diniz, won the third stage of the 7th Tour De San Luis in Argentina today.
This was the first mountain stage and was 173. 1kms long from La Punta to Mirador De Potrero.
There were seven escapers in Giacinti, Messineo, Arone, De Luna, Chavanel, Teruel and Gastauer who had taken a lead of 6.06 after 46kms.
The first climb came after 57kms and saw Giacinti take the points on the Third Category Puerto de Montaña, ahead of De Luna and Chavanel in temperatures of 35 degrees.
Their lead was down to 4.30 as the remaining riders without Ferrari, Blaha Escutti and Valera who had abandoned, went through Rio Grande country.
The highest point of today’s stage at the 90kms mark – the 2000m Category One Alto de Negoli and it was SLS rider Giacinti who again was was first over, followed by Omega Pharma Quick Step’s Chavanel and Gastauer.
With now only Messineo, Giacinti, Teruel and Gastauer the escapers, the sprint came after 115kms at La Plaza and this time, another SLS rider in Messineo took the full points on offer, sprinting to the line ahead of Giacinti and Teruel.
The peloton of around 65 riders were a minute and thirty seconds behind but with 35kms to go, the leaders day at the front was over and Astana and Saxo Tinkoff with Alberto Contador were in control of the pack.
Teruel (MOV) and Gastauer (AG2R) attacked but were brought back well before the riders started on the final climb of the day to the finish at el Potrero de los Funes, which is a 4.8 km climb with average gradients of 6.7 %.
Approaching the climb, the riders were altogether but Alex Diniz of the Funvic Brasilinvest team, got away coasted to victory, beating Mauro Santambrogio into second, followed by Michael Kwiatkowski, Bart Declerq and Tejay Van Garderen, whilst Peter Sagan, who crashed, retired from the race.