Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step) has lost his second straight sprint in 2015 to 20-year-old Fernando Gaviria. Just as in stage one, the Colombian, riding for his national team, jumped Cavendish early and held him off for stage three of the Tour de San Luis in Juana Koslay, Argentina.
Cavendish, with over 100 career wins to his name, finished three bike lengths back, gesturing angrily behind him towards third-place finisher Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida).
The stage win was just the second of Gaviria's professional road career. As a junior, he won the Omnium and Madison at the 2012 World Championships, and this winter in London, won the Omnium at the World Cup.
Gaviria went longer than he did on Monday to win his stage. Team Movistar led Lampre and Etixx, but on Wednesday Colombia also put its train in place. Gaviria and a team-mate latched on to Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida), while Cavendish had World Champion Michal Kwiatkowski and three other Etixx team-mates.
One of Cavendish's men in black moved over to let Kwiatkowski pull, Pozzato swung off as well to the left and Gaviria shot like an arrow from a bow with around 200 metres to race. Yauheni Hutarovich (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) and Cavendish tried to respond, but neither came close.
Cavendish, who won a stage in the 2013 Tour de San Luis, was further from victory than he was on Monday. Modolo again placed third and Hutarovich fourth.
To prepare for San Luis and the start of the 2015 season, Cavendish raced two six-day track events in Ghent and Zurich. He is focusing on Milan-San Remo and the Tour de France, after a rough 2014 season that saw him crash and abandon the Tour on day one.
Etixx gave it everything for a Cavendish sprint win. After an early escape faded, it had four riders on the front, but in the end it wasn't to be.
"It was a fast finish, and I felt super good," Cavendish said. "The team rode incredible again all day. But the Colombians went super, super fast the last few hundred metres.
"I think we just hesitated a bit and that's a shame because it was the exact opposite of what we did the first stage when I let the team down that day. I had too much ground to make up today, which is too bad because the team really did ride great today going into the finish.
"The last kilometre slipped away a little bit. But Gaviria deserved the win again today. He's a track rider, so he's very fast and he can go super long. Being able to sprint from a distance like that is a sign of a track rider. It's very impressive.
"As for me, I'm happy with my form and the team is riding well overall. I'd still like to try and win a stage here at Tour de San Luis and it would be nice to get the first victory of the year out of the way. I said it after the first stage, we have a couple new guys here with Lukasz Wisniowski and Fabio Sabatini and they're doing a great job. This is also Sabatini's first race as the final leadout man, so the first race of the season is an important time for all of us to get this right and I'm confident we will."
Gregor Brown is an experienced cycling journalist, based in Florence, Italy. He has covered races all over the world for over a decade - following the Giro, Tour de France, and every major race since 2006. His love of cycling began with freestyle and BMX, before the 1998 Tour de France led him to a deep appreciation of the road racing season.
-
-
Training through the pain
It’s a universal truth in cycling: when the hard effort hurts too much, we back off and slow down. But can we train our ability to tolerate pain? Steve Shrubsall finds out
-
11 alternative kits with more flair than (most of) the WorldTour would know what to do with
Gravel, crit, and amateur teams have some of the best kits (fact)
-
Police search for two men in connection to Mark Cavendish aggravated burglary case
Police have asked people to come forward if they know their whereabouts
-
Man charged with robbery at Mark Cavendish's house
A 30-year-old will appear in court today after armed men broke into the cyclist's home last month
-
Mark Cavendish full of confidence heading into 2022: 'I’m going to win next year'
The 36-year-old also said that he wouldn't continue racing if he wasn't optimistic of strong performances
-
Dame Sarah Storey nominated for BBC's Sports Personality of the Year as Cavendish and the Kenny's miss out
Britain's most successful Paralympian is nominated alongside the likes of Raheem Sterling, Emma Raducanu and Adam Peaty
-
Eddy Merckx 'wouldn't have had a problem' with Cavendish beating his Tour de France stage victory record
The 'Manx Missile' equalled the great Belgian's record at the Grand Boucle as he won four stages
-
Armed men break into Mark Cavendish's family home during aggravated burglary
The British rider was recovering from his Ghent Six crash at his family home in Essex, when burglars broke in with weapons
-
WATCH: Emotional behind the scenes footage of Mark Cavendish's first stage win at the 2021 Tour de France
His reaction to victory on stage four is a part of a docuseries created by Deceuninck - Quick-Step
-
Mark Cavendish signs one-year contract extension with Deceuninck - Quick-Step
The Manxman has finally put pen to paper on a new deal that keeps him at the Belgian team until the end of 2022
