Ahlstrand wins stage 2 in Red Deer

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Giant-Shimano kept the Tour of Alberta in check during Thursday's stage 2, launching sprinter Jonas Ahlstrand to the win in Red Deer and preserving Tom Dumoulin's overall lead.

Ahlstrand won the bunch sprint ahead of Theo Bos (Belkin) and stage 1 winner Ruben Zepuntke (Bissell Development Team) after the sprinters' teams brought back a late race breakaway in the closing kilometers. The 24-year-old Swedish rider took the lead with less than 200 meters to go and held off Bos by half a bike length at the line.

"The speed was 80km when I hit the hammer with 200 to go," Ahlstrand said. "I need to come from behind in such a sprint because you have a lot of advantage to go in the slipstream. My plan was to go not top 10 at the top of the hill and then come from behind. It was perfect that there was a tailwind with 500 to go, so it was a perfect lead out for me."

The 145.3km stage from Innisfail to Red Deer featured two sprints and one classified climb, and it concluded with three finishing circuits in downtown Red Deer. With time bonuses of three, two and one second up for grabs at the intermediate sprints, the field appeared hesitant to let any riders get too far up the road. Small groups formed off the front, but they were given little leash before the field would pull them back.

After nearly 100km of racing, Robin Carpenter (Hincapie Sportswear) and Simon Yates (Orica-Greenedge), who were placed first and second, respectively, in the mountain classification, joined UnitedHealthcare's Kiel Reijnen in a move that finally gained some traction. Cannondale's Cameron Wurf and 5-hour Energy's Jim Stemper soon bridged up to form a five-man breakaway.

Reijnen, who started the day 26 seconds down in the general classification, said he did not start the day with intentions of getting in the breakaway, but when it took so long to establish, he started thinking it was the move to be in.

"That wasn't my job today," Reijnen said. "But after 100km, if the break doesn't go then there's a real chance. I was thinking about the GC. I didn't need that many seconds to take the jersey, but there's always a lot of other things in play. I took a risk, and it didn't work."

Even with Reijnen up the road, Giant was happy to give the escapees some rope after a long day of trying to control an angry peloton.

"In the beginning it was 100km of attacking, and then a nice breakaway went and we got control," Dumoulin said. "But it took a lot of effort to control the stage, and it was actually impossible. But at the end it all came together and we have our fast guy that came out of nothing and sprinted to the win."

Dumoulin said the aggressive racing forced his team to work harder than he would have liked, but in the end the stage obviously ended well for him and his team.

"It's aggressive here, and they all want to be in the break with a lot of guys," he said. "It's not as controlled as the European races. Also because it's not all big teams, so it's harder to control it and everyone knows that. So they want to attack."

With the day's break finally established, the five leaders built a gap of 55 seconds heading toward the only KOM with 26km remaining. Yates took maximum points there and grabbed the classification lead by one point from Carpenter. From there the peloton slowly started whittling away at the escapees' lead. As the peoloton closed the gap to just over 30 seconds, Garmin-Sharp's Ben King and Silber Pro Cycling's Aurelien Passeron bridged up to the leaders to form a breakaway of seven with 20km remaining.

"It was out of control all day," King said. "It took 100km for the breakaway to get away, so I knew the guys behind were tired. On the climb a few guys jumped, and I just went across. At that point I was more fresh than the other guys, so I just gave it 100 percent in the end. I think the sprint teams had it pretty much under control, but you can't win if you don't try. Sometimes it works."

As the leaders entered the three 4km closing circuits in Red Deer, all but Yates, King and Reijnen dropped off the leaders' pace. The trio continued on, with Silber's Ryan Roth and Passeron trying to catch on. The two Silber riders got back on terms with the break, but with two laps to go the field was nipping at the leaders' heels and the catch appeared imminent.

King jumped away again as they took the bell for the final lap, but the last-gasp effort proved futile as the sprinters' teams were bearing down quickly to set up the final kick and Ahlstrand's eventual stage win.

Friday's 158km stage 3 route from Wetaskiwin to Edmonton looks like another sure bet for a mass sprint. The course includes no categorized climbs and offers just one sprint about 51km into the day. The last half of the route is generally downhill before the stage finishes on an airstrip at the Edmonton Garrison.

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