Toby Price moves into top four

Price was third fastest on the day and pulled six minutes back on race leader Adrien Van Beveren.

“It’s been a really long marathon stage — yesterday was 430km and today was 490km — the two longest of the event,” Price said.

“I’m feeling a little bit sore after racing for nearly 1,000km but apparently we have another rest day tomorrow due to the stage being cancelled. I’m not complaining, I could certainly use the time to recharge, but everyone gets the same break and will be fired up and ready to go again on Tuesday.

“All-in-all, I’m feeling good and the bike is awesome. I know the stages in Argentina are going to be tough and there are still a lot of kilometres to cover, but I’m in a good position and not had any issues.

“The idea is to just stay focused and keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

Fellow Aussies, Rod Faggotter finished the brutal stage in 27th and is 22nd overall. Scott Britnell is in 74th place.

Honda’s Joan Barreda dominated the day from start to finish, despite suffering a late fall that he seemed certain has caused him a race-ending knee injury.

The Spaniard went off at a lightening pace, opening up a gap of over three minutes on Adrien Van Beveren after 200km, but he slowed noticeably as he rode home to victory over the Frenchman and Kevin Benavides, and he wasn’t just playing it safe. “Everything was going well, but around 300km I went off-track and had a nasty fall. I think I broke my knee, and from then the pain made me slow down,” reported Barreda. “Now it’s time to see what we can do about it, but it’s looking really bad. I’m sure it’s broken, I can’t even put my foot on the floor.”