BMC Racing Team’s Brent Bookwalter finished runner-up and moved into second overall Friday at the Tour of Alberta on a day when crosswinds split the peloton and shook up the overall standings.
Four In Decisive Breakaway
The BMC Racing Team had four riders – Bookwalter, Marcus Burghardt, Steve Morabito and Jakub Novak – in an 18-man breakaway that formed about 70 kilometers into the 169.8-km race. With their advantage growing to more than five minutes, Burghardt attacked 50 kilometers from the finish to first whittle down the group. The final climb, about 10 kilometers later, led to a select six-man group that included Bookwalter and Morabito. “We knew today with the wind, it was going to be really hard,” Morabito said. “The straightaways were leading to echelons forming. There was a split at first with 40 or 50 riders and we had six guys. We tried again to get some echelons going – Cadel (Evans) was there – and after that it was only 18 guys. We tried to be smart and control the race and also come to the end for the victory.”
Morabito Named ‘Most Aggressive’
Morabito, who earned “most aggressive rider” honors on the day, led out the sprint in the streets of Drumheller. But Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) came around him and held off Bookwalter to take the win and the race lead. “Steve did a really incredible job working for me,” Bookwalter said. “I was confident of my sprint, but I knew it was going to be tough. Dennis had gapped me in the bonus sprints the past two days. So I knew he was really quick and the guy to beat. I maybe tried to come around him a little too early.” Damiano Caruso (Cannondale Pro Cycling) finished third while Morabito was sixth. Bookwalter is 11 seconds behind in the overall standings, but said the race lead is still within reach. “We have two more days and a really hard day tomorrow,” he said, “so we’ll see what we can do.”
Listen to complete comments from Bookwalter and Morabito on the BMC Racing Team Audio Line:
http://bit.ly/Vg94Oh
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