Friday 23 January 2015 05:24, UK
Daniel Diaz extended his overall lead of the Tour de San Luis in Argentina by climbing to a crushing solo victory on stage four’s summit finish on Cerro el Amago.
The 25-year-old Argentinian, who had taken the race lead by winning stage two, left his rivals behind midway up the 10.5km final climb and crossed the line 52 seconds before runner-up Alex Diniz and 54 seconds ahead of third-placed Rodolfo Torres.
The result sees Diaz stretch his advantage at the top of the general classification to one minute over second-placed Torres and 1min 19sec over third-place Diniz.
Nairo Quintana, who won the 2014 race, finished 56 seconds down on Diaz in fourth place on the day and now trails the Funvic Brasilinvest-San Jose Dos Campos rider by 1min 23sec overall.
Mark Cavendish finished in a group 14 minutes down and sits 86th.
The seven-day race continues on Friday with a 17.4km individual time trial in San Luis.
Stage four result
1 Daniel Diaz (Arg) Funvic Brasilinvest-San Jose Dos Campos, 3:29:25
2 Alex Diniz (Bra) Funvic Brasilinvest-San Jose Dos Campos, +52
3 Rodolfo Torres (Col) Team Colombia, +54
4 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +56
5 Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Bretagne-Seche Environnement, +1:19
6 Rodrigo Contreras (Col) Colombia, +1:57
7 Leandro Messineo (Arg) San Luis Somos Todos, +2:10
8 Daniel Moreno (Spa) Katusha, same time
9 Miguel Angel Rubiano (Col) Team Colombia, +2:36
10 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha, +2:47
General classification
1 Daniel Diaz (Arg) Funvic Brasilinvest-San Jose Dos Campos, 16:31:48
2 Rodolfo Torres (Col) Team Colombia, +1:00
3 Alex Diniz (Bra) Funvic Brasilinvest-San Jose Dos Campos, +1:19
4 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +1:23
5 Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Bretagne-Seche Environnement, +1:46
6 Rodrigo Contreras (Col) Colombia, +2:33
7 Daniel Moreno (Spa) Katusha, +2:37
8 Miguel Angel Rubiano (Col) Team Colombia, +3:33
9 Daniel Jaramillo (Col) Jamis-Hagens Berman, +3:58
10 Leandro Messineo (Arg) San Luis Somos Todos, +4:04
