The news for Cannondale-Drapac may not be all good these days, but the riders at the Tour of Alberta didn't appear to be slowed down by the uncertainty over their future, taking three victories in four days and placing Alex Howes and Tom-Jelte Slagter in third an fourth overall.
The team came into Alberta with high expectations as the only WorldTour squad in the 2.1 Canadian race, only to fall short on the opening day when Rally Cycling's Evan Huffman – the eventual general classification winner – and Sepp Kuss finished first and second on the mountain-top finish at Marmot Basin. Slagter was third after attacking with 2km to go and sweeping up all the day-long breakaway riders except the Rally duo.
"We're the only WorldTour team here, and after the spanking we got the first day from the Rally boys, I guess we kind of had to show up the last three days," said Howes, who won stage 3 and finished third overall.
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After the disappointment on stage 1, Cannondale bounced back with a vengeance, with Wouter Wippert winning the stage 2 sprint in Spruce Grove, and then Howes and Wippert finishing first and second the following day in Edmonton. Wippert capped off the final day with another sprint victory to close out the long weekend.
"I wish we could have made a better race on GC, but we really have to take our hats off to Sepp and Evan and the whole Rally team," Howes said. "They rode great, but I think we can be pretty happy with three stage wins. Wouter was next level."
Wippert took the win on stage 2 with perfect positioning in the finale, where the course bent slightly to the left at the finish and provided him with an inside line that proved to be the difference. Wippert beat John Murphy (Holowesko-Citadel) and H&R Block's Ryan MacAnally to the line for his first win since he took out two stages at the 2015 Tour of Korea.
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