The American Phil Gaimon gave Garmin-Sharp a win in his first race for the team. At the start, the 27-year-old benefited on the one hand from his tough pace, but on the other hand from a field in which the sprinter teams miscalculated.
Early in the race, Gaimon, together with Marc De Maar (UnitedHealthcare), Leandro Messineo (San Luis Somos Todos), Emiliano Contreras (Argentina) and Julian Gaday (Buenos Aires Provincia) left the field and set the pace on the 164-kilometer race Stage from San Luis to Villa Mercedes given. The quintet harmonized so well that the lead increased to over eleven minutes.
The deficit initially called the Omega Pharma-QuickStep team around Mark Cavendish and Tom Boonen onto the scene, but since there was no other team that wanted to join in the follow-up work, the drivers of the Belgian team put their feet up halfway through the race. The breakaways were able to increase their lead even further. When there were still a few teams that wanted to close the hole that had opened up, it was too late. Italy's Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) eventually led the field in ninth place, four and a half minutes back.
This had already happened to Gaimon at this point. In the last few kilometers he broke away from his fellow riders and secured victory ahead of Argentinian Contreras and De Maar.
//Result
1. Phil Gaimon (Garmin Sharp) 4:06:54
2. Emiliano J. Contreras (Argentina) 0:00:12
3. Marc De Maar (United Healthcare) 0:01:17
4. Leandro Messineo (San Luis Somos Todos) 0:01:26
5. Cristian Da Rosa (Clube Dataro de Ciclismo-Bottecchia) 0:03:52