Deignan climbed very well and posted a solid TT in Argentina to get into the top 20 in a quality field
Philip Deignan (Unitedhealthcare) has enjoyed an uneventful final stage of the Tour de San Luis in Argentina to wrap up a very good opening week to the new season for the Donegal man.
His 16th place overall obviously won’t go down as his most spectacular result ever but he rode very well in the mountains, put in a solid TT and managed to string together a week of consistent strong riding to open his new campaign.
The final stage of the week-long race ended yesterday, Sunday, in a bunch sprint, with Deignan coming home in 72nd place in the peloton.
The gallop that decided stage honours was won by Mattia Gavazzi (Androni Giocattoli), with Daniel Diaz (San Luis Somos Todos) maintaining the overall lead to take a great victory from a top quality field that included the likes of Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff).
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Deignan came home in the bunch on stage 1 last Monday, which was won by Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma Quickstep), and was again in the bunch on the second stage which was also settled in a sprint.
On Wednesday’s third stage things got a lot more serious, with the race finishing at the top of an 8km climb, where Deignan was 20th, just 1:12 down on the winner Alex Diniz (Funvic Brasilinvest).
That ride moved him up to 21st overall, a place he held after Thursday’s 19.23km TT where he came home in 52nd place but crucially did not lose much time to many of the climbers he had distanced the previous day.
The following day, Friday, the race hit the mountains again. Deignan was 13th on the mountain top finish, some 1:46 down on stage winner, Argentine Emmanuel Guevara (San Luis Somos Todos). The Irish man was six seconds down on Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and only 27 seconds adrift of Contador.
On Saturday the race split again on a mountain top finish, with Contador taking stage victory and Deignan slipping a little but digging deep to hold on at 16th overall, which he maintained after yesterday’s final stage. He was 4:30 down.
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