Bunch finishes in the Vuelta a San Juan are tumultuous. Continental riders know that scalping a World Tour sprinter can put them on the big stage. The World Tour sprinters know that a crash here could ruin their year. Each group considers the risks and maneuvers accordingly.

Fernando Gaviria, whose high qualities have earned him two stage wins so far this week, finished ninth in San Juan on the first day because the route he preferred was too dangerous. He was not complaining. He has not forgotten that he was once on the other side of the velvet rope.

"Their season usually ends here, and we're just getting started," the UAE Team Emirates sprinter said this week in San Juan. All the young riders want to go to the World Tour, so they try to give their maximum here. I was the same way in 2015. But that's normal. Argentina opened the door for me and got me into the World Tour."

It has been five years since Gaviria swept past Mark Cavendish on the opening stage of the Tour de San Luis. Gaviria, a weak 20-year-old on the Colombian national team, tweeted after the race that he had been caught up because there was no distance marker in the final kilometer. Two days later, Gaviria won again in Juana Cosray. By the end of the year, he had joined Quick Step as Cavendish's replacement.

Gaviria has returned to Argentina every January since then with success, but now his season is judged purely on what he achieves on the European roads. Gaviria said, "Before, my goal was to win stages in San Juan and San Luis, but now I'm aiming a little higher, to win stages in the classics and Grand Tours."

Last season was a prime example. Gaviria won the customary two races in San Juan, but in his debut season with UAE Team Emirates, he only managed four wins as a knee injury forced him to miss the Tour de France. Gaviria admitted: "In the end I won six races and my performances were regular, but I was never in the best condition."

On the morning of the time trial stage of the Vuelta a San Juan, Gaviria bounced back and forth between Spanish and English as he addressed the press at his hotel. Whatever the language, his faceless timing was always spot-on.

Asked if he would miss racing on the track in an Olympic year, Gaviria thought for a moment and then said: "No." Asked about his ambitions for the Tour, he replied simply: "To win. Win," Gaviria said, and then paused: "Win a lot of stages. The Tour will be his only Grand Tour in 2020. Who decided his program?

Meanwhile, the classics will be the focus of Gaviria's first half of the season: after a remarkable start to his professional life in 2016, he was already a favorite to win his debut race, Milan-San Remo. Arriving in Via Roma, Gaviria was listed as one of the favorites to win, but crashed just before the finish line. Since then, he has won every year at Poggio, but La Primavera has remained the center of his spring.

"San Remo has a lot of climbers and is really hard to win. Last year I went full gas in Poggio and didn't have any sprinters left in front of me, but I will try again this year," said Gaviria, who continues to explore his prospects in the 2020 cobbled classic.

A year ago, Gaviria helped teammate Alexander Kristoff win the Tour de Flanders in a modest debut. Gaviria's Classics potential has been highly regarded since his time with Quick Step, but his results on the cobbles have been less than stellar.

"I want to win the Classics and I also want to win Paris-Roubaix. Last year, I woke up with a 40-degree fever and the doctor told me, 'You can't start. This year I want to see the cobblestones and do my best to arrive at the course."

"I'm going to do my best in the classics, but I also have Christophe. But there's also Christophe. We'll see sooner or later."

Gaviria's record in the Grand Tour group sprint is rather more imposing: he won four stages in his 2017 Giro d'Italia debut, and a year later he won the first two stages in his first Tour. Even in the troubled 2019, he won the Giro in Orbetello following the disqualification of Elia Viviani. No wonder he is reluctant to sacrifice finishing speed to enhance his endurance in the Classics.

"You have to keep your balance," he said. 'If you try to run 50km by yourself you might have the power, but you might come to the finish in Flanders with 20 riders, and then you need the speed for the sprint.'

In 2019, Gaviria lined up for the Giro after the Classics, but this time a rest period is built into the calendar in late April before turning his attention to the Tour, which had a brilliant opening weekend two years ago.

"The classics are important, but the whole world is focused on the Tour," Gaviria said. I think it's important for the team."