Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) came in late to win a chaotic sprint finish and take the opening stage of the Vuelta a San Juan.
In the final metres of the race a number of teams were leaving it late with Bora-hansgrohe in particular holding off despite having both Peter Sagan and Sam Bennett in position.
Eventually Sagan attacked but Bennett couldn’t follow, as it seemed the idea was for the former to lead out for the Irishman given Sagan arrived a day later than the rest of the team.
Sagan did his job but Bennett was nowhere to be seen in a fairly messy ending to the race for Bora, finishing third behind the winner and Matteo Malucelli in second.
“A messy, messy sprint – they were all over the place!” But it’s Fernando Gaviria who bags Stage 1 of #VueltaSJ2019 pic.twitter.com/tsLiFpSGo7
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) January 27, 2019
Vuelta a San Juan 2019 – stage 1 results (San Juan – Pocito):
| 1 | Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) | 3:50:12 |
| 2 | Matteo Malucelli (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
| 3 | Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 4 | Luca Pacioni (Neri-Sottoli-Selle Italia-KTM) | ,, |
| 5 | Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-QuickStep) | ,, |
| 6 | Rudy Barbier (Israel Cycling Academy) | ,, |
| 7 | Ricardo Escuela (A.C.A Virgen de Fatima) | ,, |
| 8 | Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 9 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 10 | Manuel Belletti (Androni Giacattoli-Sidermec) | ,, |
