Team News: 2nd for BMC in Tour de San Luis

2013_VanillaBikes_Banner_Oct_02

BMC Racing Team’s Peter Stetina finished runner-up to Julian Arredondo with teammate Darwin Atapuma fourth on the first of three summit finishes at the Tour de San Luis.

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Stetina attacked in the final kilometers of the 170.6-km race after the peloton swallowed up the remnants of a five-man breakaway. “It was a really bad headwind on the climb, so no one was moving that much,” Stetina said. “I looked at Darwin and he nodded that he was good, so I decided to attack first.”

2014_SanLuis_Arredondo_Win

“I thought it would either break it up or he could come up to me because in the headwind, everyone was having such a draft on the climb.”

But only Arredondo followed and the pair dueled it out in the final few meters. Stetina went to his sprint first, only to be overtaken just before the line. “He (Arredondo) wasn’t interested in working,” Stetina said. “It was a good tactical move on his part. I wanted to keep the pace high if the pace got hard behind.”

Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) and Atapuma finished three seconds later while Stage 1 winner Philip Gaimon (Garmin-Sharp) held onto the overall lead by 1:47 over Marc de Maar (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team). Stetina climbed into fourth overall, 4:16 back.

Atapuma, who joins Stetina as newcomers to the BMC Racing Team this season, said he was content to watch his teammate go on the attack. “Everything was like the plan we did in the morning with our sport director,” he said. “For sure it was a pity that Peter did not win the stage because we worked together for this goal. But on the other hand, I’m sure that we are on the way to getting good results soon.”

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Jackson Stewart said the team’s No. 1 goal was to protect Atapuma. “The guys had freedom to try something and Stetina did. It just didn’t pay off for him,” Stewart said. “It was a great ride, but I think he’s going to be hitting his head for not making the other guy work because he pulled him to the line.”

Stetina said the result won’t change who the team is working for on the Wednesday’s 175.8-km stage that also finishes uphill, though not as severely. “I think Darwin is still the team leader and he has shown he is climbing better on the longer five to 10-kilometer climbs,” he said. “But it’s better that we have two cards to play instead of one now.”

 

 

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: