Movistar's Xavier Tondo has started both his own season as well as his team's in impeccable fashion. The Catalonian climber leads Argentina's Tour de San Luis after four stages and a convincing victory in Thursday's time trial.
Tondo, who moved from the Cervelo Test Team to Eusebio Unzue's outfit following the demise of the Test Team, entered into the Spanish squad as a rider who would be able to pursue his own overall ambitions. Movistar is certainly a team with no lack in depth or star power, but the team does have a vacancy for a true Grand Tour leader in the absence of Alejandro Valverde, who is serving out a two year suspension stemming from Operacion Puerto.
The 32 year old has been a late comer to the top level of the sport, though he has raced professionally since 2003. Before his 2010 season with the Cervelo Test Team though, his professional career was spent on smaller Spanish and Portuguese teams.
2010 was an absolute breakout for Tondo though and showed that he certainly has the ability to contend for the general classification in the difficult one week stages races and the Grand Tours. The affable climber took a stage win at Paris-Nice, then another at the Volta a Catalunya plus second overall. He followed that with an excellent Giro d'Italia, which was only held back by illness, then capped off his season with 6th overall at the Vuelta a Espana.
There's no reason to think that Tondo won't be able to move even higher in 2011, and his performance so far in Argentina is indicative of a rider continuing his upward progression. In the race's first uphill finish, he was present and aggressive, and eventually finished 4th, then, in Thursday's crucial time trial, he netted a powerful win over a strong field to take the win.
"This was my twelfth victory as a professional, and I am very happy. We want to take the overall win, but we know that there are three stages to go. With thirty seconds on Serpa, I cannot sleep peacefully. It was difficult to calculate the wind, but each time I feel better in the time trials. I think my team is strong, but we will take it day by day," said the day's winner following the race and quoted in Marca.
For a rider looking to target Grand Tour success, there's not much better than an early season showing of both climbing prowess and pure time trial speed.
Argentina's Jorge Giacinta finished 8 seconds in arrears of Tondo, whilst UnitedHealthcare's Scott Zwizanski took the final spot on the day's podium in third, 15 seconds back. Ivan Basso was 10th on the day, 45 seconds adrift of Tondo's pace.
For UnitedHealthcare's new signing, Scott Zwizanski, it was an early season confirmation both for himself and his ambitious team, who are looking to prepare for an arduous first year racing abroad in Europe.
“My teammates and I raced hard this afternoon. Third place isn’t bad for January, especially considering there’s still three inches of snow on the ground where I live! We love racing here in Argentina and looking forward to tomorrow’s fifth stage.”
While UnitedHealthcare can celebrate an excellent stage result, the overall classification looks likely to come down to a duel between two riders, Xavier Tondo and Jose Serpa, over the next two difficult days and Sunday's sprinter friendly jaunt. The Spaniard currently has 30 seconds over Colombia's climbing specialist, Jose Serpa of Androni Giocattoli.
The race will finish on Sunday in Puente Blanco.