Ruben Zepuntke won stage 1 of the Tour of Alberta, sprinting out of a small lead group that formed in the final kilometers of racing.
Wednesday was Zepuntke’s first major victory this season.
The Tour of Alberta peloton faced a cold, grey afternoon of racing, with temperatures not much warmer than 49 degrees.
On the first of six circuits around Lethbridge, a group of 14 made a move and got a small gap.
By the time they were into the second lap, most of the riders were back to the field, aside from Matthew Hayman (Orica-GreenEdge), Robin Carpenter (Hincapie Sportswear Development), and Nathan Van Hooydonck (Bissell Development Team).
With four 23.8-kilometer laps remaining, the lead trio’s advantage was 4:40.
As the race approached its final lap, Van Hooydonck dropped from the break back to the peloton, which now featured Garmin-Sharp on the front, driving the pace.
The entire Garmin-Sharp team rode on the front, bringing the break’s gap down to 2:15 with 20 kilometers left.
The duo’s advantage kept deteriorating — their advantage fell to 1:20 with 15km to go.
With eight kilometers left, the gap was 20 seconds.
The escape ended at 6km to go.
With 4.5km left, a group of 16 had broken off the front of the peloton on the final steep climb up Stafford Hill Drive.
Daniel Eaton (Bissell Development Team) led the peloton into the final kilometer.
It was a close photo finish, but Zepuntke edged the group, thanks to his teammates efforts in the finale.
Garmin-Sharp’s Ramunas Navardauskas finished second, and Ryan Anderson (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) was third.
The post Ruben Zepuntke out-sprints small group to win Alberta stage 1 appeared first on VeloNews.com.
via VeloNews.com http://ift.tt/WdaYEc
No comments:
Post a Comment