The 2013 Tour of Alberta continued today with the first mass-start road race in the beautiful Strathcona County. With a highly successful prologue yesterday, riders were excited to hit the roads of Alberta for this first road race, a 158km voyage from Strathcona County to the small town of Camrose.
The race started with a very fast tempo right from the beginning. A few break attempts were unsuccessful, until a group of four riders found themselves all alone in the front. With no threats in the break, the peloton of approximately 115 cyclists were content to leave the solo attack alone, controlling the gap at around two minutes.
With about 50km to go, the peloton slowly closed the gap on the break, and captured the four exhausted riders in the third and last lap of the Camrose circuit. The teams organized themselves for the sprint, with Cannondale Pro Cycling all pulling for Peter Sagan, who wore today the Province of Alberta Leader’s Jersey.
In the peloton sprint finale, its without any surprises that Peter Sagan of Cannondale Pro Cycling Team took the sprint victory after 3:22:17 of racing, capturing the important 10-second time bonus that comes with the victory to increase his General Classification lead.
Of the Canadian National Team in the race, Rob Britton remain the top rider showing a time deficit of 1:10 on the leader, with Antoine Duchesne following very closely just one second behind.
Gord Fraser, the directeur sportif for the Canadian Team here at the Tour of Alberta, was pleased with the results of this young team.
“For Cycling Canada, this is an introduction for some of these guys at this level of competition. The guys executed good team tactics, and there is good harmony in the team. We don’t really have a big candidate for a sprint. Jean-Sébastien goes pretty fast and Antoine is in very good shape. There are going to take a sniff at the finish line, but realistically at this level, it’s a tall order.”
“There is a lot that can be lost in a race like today, and we didn’t lose anything. We still have Antoine and Rob pretty high the general classification. Most importantly, just to get that first day out of the way. Today we did 45 minutes at 54km/h average. That is as fast as I ever seen a bike race in my career. The pace was very high and the guys withstood that intensity very well. Lots of positives today, and hopefully as the race wears on we can become more ambitious with our goals.”
Wearing the Best Canadian Jersey today, Ryder Hesjedal of Team Garmin-Sharp finished with the bunch, and conserves his red jersey for tomorrow’s stage.
The race travelled throughout some beautiful prairie lands, home of the flourishing ranching and farming industries in Alberta. With wide open range roads used for the trek, riders were treated with some gorgeous sceneries on a cloud-less day.
Once again today, the race was a big hit in terms of spectatorships, with thousands of fans gathering at the start line in Strathcona County to launch the race, and as many flocking to downtown core of Camrose to witness the finish.
This inaugural Tour of Alberta continues Thursday with Stage two, a 158.1km trek between Devon and Red Deer.
The Canadian broadcast partner for the Tour of Alberta, Sportsnet, will be airing the race live for two hours each day, along with daily one-hour highlights program to air in primetime each day of the race. Globally, the Tour of Alberta will be broadcast in 162 countries, reaching an estimated168 million viewers.
Follow Cycling Canada on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cyclingcanada and on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/cyclingcanada
2013 TOUR OF ALBERTA – RESULTS, STAGE 1
1. Peter Sagan Slovakia | Cannondale Pro Cycling 3:22:17
2. Eric Young United States | Optum P/b Kelly Benefit Strategies +0
3. Moreno Hofland Netherlands | Belkin Pro Cycling Team +0
4. Ryan Anderson Canada | Optum P/b Kelly Benefit Strategies +0
5. Luka Mezgec Slovenia | Team Argos-Shimano +0
6. Brent Bookwalter United States | BMC Racing Team +0
7. Fabian Wegemann Germany | Team Garmin-Sharp +0
8. Matthias Friedemann Germany | Champion System Pro Cycling +0
9. Tobias Ludvigsson Swenden | Team Argos-Shimano +0
10. John Murphy United States | UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling +0
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21. Jean-Michel Lachance Canada | Canadian National Team +0
44. Antoine Duchesne Canada | Canadian National Team +:10
54. Rob Britton Canada | Canadian National Team +:10
67. Derrick St John Canada | Canadian National Team +:24
71. Jean-Sebastien Perron Canada | Canadian National Team +:24
78. Garrett Mcleod Canada | Canadian National Team +:29
92. Ryan Aitcheson Canada | Canadian National Team +:48
103. Stuart Wight Canada | Canadian National Team +1:40
2013 TOUR OF ALBERTA – OVERALL CLASSIFICATION
1. Peter Sagan Slovakia | Cannondale Pro Cycling 3:30.35
2. Rohan Dennis Australia | Team Garmin-Sharp +:23
3. Tobias Ludvigsson Swenden | Team Argos-Shimano +:24
4. Cadel Evans Australia | BMC Racing Team +:30
5. Brent Bookwalter United States | BMC Racing Team +:31
6. Pieter Weening Netherlands | ORICA GreenEDGE +:39
7. Patrick Gretsch Germany | Team Argos-Shimano +:39
8. Tom Zirbel United States | Optum P/b Kelly Benefit Strategies +:40
9. Ryder Hesjedal Canada | Team Garmin-Sharp +:40
10. Robert Gesink Netherlands | Belkin Pro Cycling Team +:41
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26. Rob Britton Canada | Canadian National Team +1:01
28. Antoine Duchesne Canada | Canadian National Team +1:02
54. Jean-Michel Lachance Canada | Canadian National Team +1:22
66. Garrett Mcleod Canada | Canadian National Team +1:36
78. Derrick St John Canada | Canadian National Team +1:56
84. Ryan Aitcheson Canada | Canadian National Team +2:09
86. Jean-Sébastien Perron Canada | Canadian National Team +2:11
102. Stuart Wight Canada | Canadian National Team +3:12
2013 TOUR OF ALBERTA – THE STAGES
Prologue: Tuesday, September 3; Edmonton (7.3 km)
Stage 1: Wednesday, September 4; Strathcona County to Camrose (158.1 km)
Stage 2: Thursday, September 5; Devon to Red Deer (174.8 km)
Stage 3: Friday, September 6; Strathmore to Drumheller (169.8 km)
Stage 4: Saturday, September 7; Black Diamond/Foothills (169.9 km)
Stage 5: Sunday, September 8 – Okotoks to Calgary (129.4 km)
2013 TOUR OF ALBERTA – THE JERSEYS
Province of Alberta Leader Jersey (Yellow): Peter Sagan Slovakia | Cannondale Pro Cycling 3:30:35
SUBWAY® Sprint Jersey (Green): Peter Sagan Slovakia | Cannondale Pro Cycling 15 pts
Budweiser Crown King of the Mountains Jersey (Red Polka Dots): Tom Jelte Slagter Netherlands | Belkin Pro Cycling Team 10 pts
CWB Best Young Rider Jersey (White): Peter Sagan Slovakia | Cannondale Pro Cycling 3:30:35
Best Canadian Jersey (Red): Ryder Hesjedal Canada | Team Garmin-Sharp +:40
Most Aggressive Rider (Blue): Peter Sagan Slovakia | Cannondale Pro Cycling 3:30:35
Ron Callahan is the chief cook and bottlewasher at Bike World News, doing everything from website design to bike reviews.