2013 Tour of Alberta: Stage 2 preview

Stage 2 marks Day 2 out on the prairie, but the parcours is a little more varied than the previous day’s. “It’s going to be flat and fast for the first half, but then it really starts rolling at the end,” Jeff Corbett, the race technical director, says. “It’s sort of a story of two stages.”

The pack will head south from Devon. The sprinters will be able to fight for bonuses in Wetaskiwin and Ponoka. Then the rollers begin. At about 10 km from Red Deer, the group will encounter a king-of-the-mountains challenge. It’s a 1 km run that hits grades of 7 per cent. Corbett sees this spot as a great launching pad for attacks. In Red Deer, riders will have to navigate the three-lap circuit before their day is done. Each lap will feature a small hill that could lead to more attacks. “This is a day the sprinters will be challenged because the KOM is just outside of town and because of the hill on the finishing circuit. If the sprinters want to win, they are going to have to work hard for it,” Corbett says.

This course could lend itself to another win for the current race leader, Peter Sagan (Cannondale). Of course, his team will have to control the race, and manage that prairie wind, to keep the leader protected.