Tour of Alberta: Colin Joyce wins stage 1 in Lethbridge

Colin Joyce (Axeon Hagens Berman) won a tense sprint finish ahead of Cannondale-Drapac's Alex Howes in Lethbridge to claim the first Tour of Alberta leader's jersey of 2016 as the peloton split on the city circuit. Defending champion Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) was alert and made the front group, ensuring he is well positioned to claim back-to-back victories.

The city of Lethbridge seems to have a soft spot in its heart for adopted Canadian Axel Merckx, whose development team took the stage win the last time a stage finished here in 2014. Joyce was a late-comer to the day's winning breakaway, bridging to a large group about halfway though the race with two other riders and then making the split when that group broke up on the penultimate lap of the 12km circuit.

In the finale, Joyce came through the last corner second wheel but then surged to the front just ahead of Howes at the line. He said an earlier bonus sprint at the start/finish provided a good bit of practice.

"A few laps before I decided to go for the sprint bonus points, and it was pretty similar," Joyce said. "I came through second wheel and was able to take that bonus sprint. Granted, on that bonus sprint the guy in front of me sat up, but it still felt like if you came through that second wheel you had a good shot to stick it to the line. It was good practice I guess for the finish."

Joyce not only earned the yellow jersey for his day's effort, he also won the points jersey and jersey of the best young rider.

"At Tour of Utah I did alright and was able to get into a jersey, so that felt pretty cool," he said. "Now I get three today, so I feel little greedy, but at the same time it's kind of nice."

While Joyce collected the stage laurels and the first leader's jersey, the ultimate winner on Thursday could prove to be Mollema, who made the front group and all but whittled his general classification rivals to just 11 riders as the rest of the peloton finished more than two minutes down on the lead group. 

How it unfolded

The 106.9km opening stage in Lethbridge took place on a 12km circuit that the riders covered nine times. Aside from winds that blew up from the Old Man River, the day's biggest obstacle was a 1km climb that topped out less than 4km from the finish.

As predicted, the first stage of the race was out of the ordinary in that the day was animated by a breakaway group made up of nearly a third of the field. The group initially got away on the climb during the second lap, and their ranks quickly swelled to 26 riders.

The group included Mollema, Peter Stetina and Frank Schleck (Trek Segafredo)m Alex Howes and Toms Skujins (Cannondale-Drapac), Daniel Eaton, Danny Summerhill, Chris Jones, John Murphy and Tanner Putt (UnitedHealthcare), Eddie Dunbar and Chad Young (Axeon Hagens Berman), Robin Carpenter, Travis McCabe and Joe Lewis (Holowesko-Citadel), Shane Kline, Danny Pate and Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling), Alex Cataford, Matteo Dal-Cin and Nigel Ellsay (Silber Pro Cycling), Angus Morton (Jelly Belly), Matthieu Jeannes (Lupus), Francisco Mancebo (SkyDive Dubai), Danilo Celano (Amore & Vita), and Team Canada's Antoine Duchesne.

The group of 26 riders built an advantage of more than a minute before a chase group of three that included Lawson Craddock (Cannondale-Drapac), Redi Haliliaj (Amore & Vita) and Colin Joyce (Axeon Hagens Berman) formed behind. The trio worked well together to connect with the break as they topped the climb on the fourth lap, and suddently there was a group of 29 up the road.

The gap went up to over three minutes briefly before a chase from Amore & Vita and Jelly Belly started cutting into their lead. As they started lap five the gap was down to 2:15, and halfway through lap six it was down to 1:30. The gap held at 1:30 as the group went through the line to start lap 7, but the catch began to look inevitable.

Sensing the catch of the big group was imminent, attacks started up in the breakaway, with a group of 10 riders eventually splitting away. The new lead group of 10 included Mollema, Howes, Skujins, Eaton, Joyce, Carpenter, Morton, Huffman, Cataford and Dal-Cin. Mancebo and Duchesne soon joined the leaders to form a new group of 12 off the front.

As they took the bell for the final lap, the leaders had an advantage of 1:10 to a chase group of three and 2:20 to the peloton. While the chasing trio behind exploded, Pate soldiered on alone in hopes of making contact, although it was obviously a big ask to bridge a gap of 1:35 alone in the latter stages of the race.

Mancebo took the front as the leaders went up the climb for the last time before Huffman launched an attack near the top of the climb. The Rally rider opened a small gap, with Carpenter taking up the chase and also opening a gap on the rest of the break. He was quickly joined by Eaton and Mollema, but the move was doomed and the leaders approached the finish together.

Carpenter led through the final corner and seemed to be in control, but Joyce and Howes edged past the Holowesko rider at the line. 

"Coming into the end I think Robin had to open it up and Colin ran off the back of him and got a good bit of speed," Howes said. "I was really hoping Colin would fade, but the kid's good, so, yeah, he won."

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