Tour of Alberta 2014: Defending top Canadian Ryan Anderson looks ahead to the race

The second Tour of Alberta starts Tuesday. Ahead of the six-day UCI 2.1 race, we spoke with Ryan Anderson who will be taking on Prairie winds and and tough city circuits. The Spruce Grove, Alta.-native of Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies was the top Canadian rider at the 2013 Tour of Alberta, finishing eighth in the GC.

On the inaugural race

“Because I’m originally from Alberta, it was special to go up on stage each day near the end. I took the jersey halfway through. It was pretty cool to see race in its first year and how well it was run and how big it was. I think Alberta has a lot to offer so it nice to see that they have such a nice race up and running.”

On the 2014 route

“There aren’t going to be any days with significant long climbs, but it looks like this year there will be a lot more days with hard circuits in Lethbridge and Edmonton. There will be a lot of punchy hard climbs, like [the Grand Prix race in] Quebec City. It’s a style of racing that I think will suit me better.”

On the winds

“A lot of the time last year, we had a lot of tailwind so stages when by pretty quickly. The day into Drumheller was pretty much crosswinds all day, especially at the beginning. The whole race got blown apart and its when the GC got settled from the front group really. I think that will always be a factor in Alberta for stages that are point-to-point.”

On the style of race

“With races like [the Amgen Tour of] California or [the USA Pro Challenge in] Colorado, you have a sense of which stages will be decisive. I think with Alberta last year, really any stage could have been a decisive stage. It changes the race a little bit that way. Anything can always happen in bike racing, but you never really know what to expect with Alberta.”