Tour of Alberta: Huffman wins the overall as Wippert takes final stage

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After a chaotic and dramatic day of racing in Edmonton, Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) finished safely in the bunch to seal the overall victory at the 2017 Tour of Alberta, while Wouter Wippert (Cannondale-Drapac) took his second stage win of the week and the third win for the green argyle team.

Wippert, who also won the stage 2 sprint in Spruce Grove, took out the bunch sprint in downtown Edmonton ahead of Holowesko-Citadel's John Murphy and Rally's Colin Joyce after the peloton caught final breakaway rider Matteo Dal-Cin (Rally) inside the final kilometre.

"When we started the last lap it looked like the break was done, then he attacked and got a pretty big gap," Wippert said in the post-race press conference. "We heard on the radio, 'Go, go, go – it's now or you're going to be too late.'

"We started with the team going pretty full gas," Wippert continued. "I was a little bit worried that we would run out of people, but everyone did 300 or 400 metres more than they were suppose to do, and that’s how we ended up pretty comfortable with three guys in the last 500 metres."

Kristijan Koren led Wippert through the final right-hand corner with about 500 metres to go, and then stage 3 winner Alex Howes took over as the last man, dropping off Wippert with a head of steam at 300 metres and finishing fourth himself.

"When you get dropped off with that much speed in the last 300 metres – you still have to sprint, but it makes it a lot easier with such good teamwork," said Cannondale's Dutch fastman.

For Huffman, the overall win was the crescendo of a season that has seen unparalleled success for himself and for his team. 

"I don't know what's better, two wins in California or the overall here," said Huffman, who won stages 4 and 7 at the WorldTour Amgen Tour of California in May. "I guess I'll let someone else be the judge of that. But this is the biggest GC win, for sure. Earlier this year Tour of the Gila was the biggest before this, so I've just really shown a lot of progression in a short amount of time over the last two years with this team."

How it unfolded

Monday's 124.1km final stage in Edmonton consisted of 11 laps around a 11.3km urban circuit in the city centre. The route has been used for the final day of the race since 2014, when Daryl Impey used a 10-second time bonus at the finish to jump past Tom Dumoulin by one second to take the overall win.

Time bonuses were up for grabs again on Monday, with two intermediate sprints at the end of laps four and eight offering bonuses of three, two and one second to the top three. Bonuses of 10, six and four seconds were up for grabs at the finish. The Hilly, technical route also included three KOMs on laps three, six and nine.

A group of six readers slipped away from the field on the opening lap, with Ty Magner (Holowesko-Citadel), Alex Cowan (Silber Pro Cycling), Nigel Ellsay (Silber Pro Cycling), Connor Brown (Elevate-KHS), Felix Cote-Bouvette (Garneau-Quebecor) and Oliver Evans (H&R Block) gaining a slight advantage.

A chase group of six riders escaped the field on lap 2 and was able to bridge to the leaders just before the end of the loop. Rob Britton (Rally Cycling), Joe Lewis (Holowesko-Citadel), Lachlan Norris (UnitedHealthcare), Josh Berry (Jelly Belly-Maxxis), Taylor Shelden (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) and Weimer Alfanso Roldan (Medellin-Inder) joined the initial escapees to form a new lead group of 12.

Britton, who started the day eighth overall at 42 seconds, was the best-placed rider in the group, and when the advantage went up to 1:05 on lap three, he was the virtual leader on the road.

With a newly comprised group up the road, another chase formed during lap three that consisted of four riders. The new chase group included Robigzon Oyola (Medellin-Inder), Olivier Brisebois (Garneau-Quebecor), Laurent Gervais (Aevolo) and Zeke Mostov (Aevolo).

The chase hung out in no-man's land for most of the third and fourth laps, and then connected with the leaders to form a new front group of 16 with a 1:05 gap on the field, where Huffman's team was on patrol. Huffman's teammate Britton was still the highest-placed rider in the move and continued to be the virtual race leader.

The gap came down to less than a minute during the seventh lap as Rally, followed in the field by Cannondale, Unitedhealthcare and Holowesko, kept the breakaway in check.

Chaos struck the peloton on lap eight when Kuss touched wheels with a teammate and hit the deck on a slight incline. The disruption allowed another group of six to peel away from the field, although by that time the breakaway's advantage was down to just 20 seconds. Kuss quickly remounted and was back in the field, but the crash and subsequent disruption caused chaos all over the course.

As the field inched closer and close to the breakaway, the new chase of six closed in the leaders. In the new chase were Travis McCabe (UnitedHealthcare), Matteo Dal-Cin (Rally Cycling), Adam Roberge (Silber), Cesar Parades (Medellin-Inder) and James Piccoli (Elevate-KHS).

Meanwhile in the breakaway, Britton joined UnitedHealthcare's Norris in attacking the move and gaining a small gap. Magner, Shelden and Ellsay bridged to the lead duo to form a lead group of five. The remnants of the former break continued to chase in no-man's land, while the field was one minute back.

The new lead group had four riders within a minute of Huffman's overall lead, with Britton starting the day 42 seconds back, Ellsay at 47, Norris at 55 and Shelden at 55.

The first chase group, which now consisted of 14 riders, caught the leaders to make a front group of 19, while the field lingered 45 seconds back with two laps remaining. With its podium places in danger, Cannondale started contributing to the chase. Riders began dropping out of the breakaway until the front group was down to 14, while the field had whittled their lead down to 25 seconds.

Elevate's Piccoli, who started the day just 44 seconds down, attacked the breakaway and was joined by Dal-Cin, who was 50 seconds down. The duo opened a slight lead over their former breakaway companions, while the field continued to close down the gap.

All the drama of the stage was nullified on the final lap when the field caught the breakaway. Dal-Cin wasn't finished adventuring off the front, however, as the Canadian road champion attacked again and took a small gap. Cannondale recognised the threat to their GC podium spots, and took to the front to reel in Dal-Cin, who had 15 seconds midway through the final lap.

Dal-Cin had 10 seconds over the field with 2km to go, and Cannondale brought five riders to the front to pick up the chase. The gap was quickly cut in half, and Dal-Cin succumbed just inside 1km to go.

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