The Colombian Miguel Ángel López (Team Medellín-EPM) spectacularly dominated the queen stage of the Vuelta a San Juan 2023 and became the new leader of the general classification just two days before the closing of the Argentine contest, the most prestigious in America in terms of stage racing.
Supermán López took advantage of the impeccable work of his teammates to win ahead of the Italian Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and his compatriot Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe), who tried to surprise with a long attack.
The festival of the Colombians on this fifth day was completed by Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), with a fourth place in the final goal; Einer Rubio (Movistar Team) with fifth place and Brando Rivera in sixth place.
The escape of the day was led by Emiliano Contreras (Chimbas Te Quiero), Leandro Messineo (Chimbas Te Quiero), Christofer Jurado (Panama is Culture and Values), Alejandro Quilci (Gremios por el Deporte-Cutral Co), Laureano Rosas (Gremios por el Deporte-Cutral Co), Manuele Tarozzi (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) and German Nicolás Tivani (Team Corratec), but in the final kilometers the group was overtaken.
At the end came the battle of the climbers, the world champion tried to surprise with a change of pace with 10 kilometers to go and quickly created a good gap and seemed to be on his way to the double. However, Ineos Grenadiers refused to accept Evenepoel’s supremacy and deployed their best men to catch up with the Belgian. After López’s first attack, the Soudal-Quick-Step runner stayed.
In the final stretch, Supermán López, Sergio Higuita, Einer Rubio, Egan Bernal and Filippo Ganna fought for victory. Lopez clearly felt good on the steeper sections and came out ahead with a second attack that ended up knocking out his opponents. This time only Higuita was able to follow him, Bernal, Ganna and Rubio stayed behind.
The Boyacá cyclist quickly moved away from his pursuers Higuita, Bernal, Ganna and Rubio, but had to push again in the last kilometers to push away a strong Ganna. The Italian tried to reach the Colombian, in time trial mode, but in the end he had to settle for second place.
This Saturday the sixth and penultimate stage of the San Juan round will take place, a 144 kilometer partial, on a circuit at the Vicente Chancay Velodrome. The successor to the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, champion of the last edition in 2020, will be known on Sunday, January 29 in San Juan (Argentina).
Source: Cycling World Magazine and www.vueltaasanjuan.org