Tour of Alberta: Zepuntke wins stage 1

The Bissell Development Team played Wednesday's stage 1 at the Tour of Alberta to perfection, putting a rider in the daylong breakaway and then setting up Ruben Zepuntke in the finale to take the rain-soaked sprint and the biggest win of his career. Race leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) finished safely in the field and held onto the gold leader's jersey for another day.

After a long day in cold temperatures and a steady downpour, Zepuntke crossed the line in a photo finish ahead of Garmin-Sharp's Ramunas Navardauskas, with Optum Pro Cycling's Ryan Anderson grabbing the last podium spot.

"Actually I thought I was second, because Navardauskas came with such speed up to the finish," Zepuntke said. "He took over, and I was like, 'Oh, that was close.' But then I saw all of the cameramen and the guys come up to me, so I thought, 'OK, I am the winner of today.' So I'm very proud. All of my teammates, too, did a good job. It's very nice."

Dumoulin said he suffered in the cold weather, but he was satisfied with his team's performance throughout the 143km circuit race in Lethbridge.

"It was horrible," the race leader said of the day's conditions. "I was actually suffering, and I didn't have my best day. I think the cold caught me a little bit, but I kept the jersey, and the team rode really, really hard. There were three really strong riders in the front, and we had some difficulty bringing them back. Luckily some other teams started helping. Then we caught them just before the last climb, and it was enough to keep the lead. So I'm really satisfied about that."

The circuit through downtown Lethbridge and its outskirts featured six hilly laps that include the Stafford Drive climb and its 15 percent grade. From there, riders faced another 5.5km of rolling climbs before reaching the start/finish line.

An early breakaway of 14 riders peeled away on the first lap, but the move included the top three in the general classification and was soon brought back into the fold. Orica GreenEdge's Matthew Hayman, Hincapie Sportswear's Robin Carpenter and Bissell Development Team's Nathan Van Hooydonck continued on off the front after the field captured the rest of the break.

Although all three escapees were less than a minute down on GC, the peloton liked the numbers and let the leaders build a maximum advantage of 4:30 by the fourth lap. The advantage did not grow without drama, however, as Hayman believed Van Hooydonck was not doing his share. Hayman let the 18-year-old, who was Belgium's junior rider of the year just one season ago, know he would sit up if things didn't improve. Hayman was skeptical of the three-rider lead group's chances, but as the gap grew his attitude changed.

"Originally no," Hayman told Cyclingnews about his belief in the breakaway's ability to stay away. "But then when we were coming around with two laps to go and we still had a fairly big lead, I started to believe in it, but I had to be careful. We had a strong team with some good guys in the bunch, so we could go each way, and I was committed to that. I knew if it came back we still had some good guys in the front, and the harder the race was the better it was for our team."

With all three riders contributing to the effort, the gap hovered above four minutes until the chase, led by Giant and then Garmin and UnitedHealthcare, started taking big chunks out of the advantage. The gap was down to just 2:40 when Van Hooydonck popped out of the lead group on the lap-five KOM.

"They were better than me for sure,'" Van Hooydonck said. "I heard them talking, and I was like, 'Yeah they're better, so it doesn't really matter.' Then on the second-to-last climb, Carpenter looked at Hayman and attacked. I think they let Carpenter take the points for the KOM jersey, and I was done, so I couldn't follow the guys anyways."

Hayman and Carpenter soldiered on, but their effort was also doomed when the field caught them at the bottom of the final climb with about 6km remaining. From that point, Bissell's Tanner Putt launched an attack, and when the field caught him, Bissell's Daniel Eaton took off next. The field eventually pulled back Eaton, setting up the bunch sprint and Zepuntke's win.

"Of course this was one of the biggest wins of this year but also my career," Zepuntke said. "It was a very hard day, and I think the rain was one of the reasons it was so hard. And it was cold. I'm very good in rainy days and cold days, so I thought it could be a good day for me."

The Tour of Alberta continues with Thursday's stage 2 route from Innisfail to Red Deer. The 145.3km stage, which concludes with three finishing circuits in downtown Red Deer, features two sprints and one classified climb.

Results

Mathew Hayman (Aus) Orica Greenedge