2014 Tour of Alberta Stage 2: Swede Jonas Ahlstrand triumphs in Red Deer
Jonas Ahlstrand (Sweden/Giant-Shimano) came around Belkin's Theo Bos (The Netherlands) in the acceleration to the line to win Thursday's sprint in Red Deer. Wednesday's winner Ruben Zepuntke (Germany/Bissel) placed third. Ahlstrand's teammate Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands) keeps the yellow leader's jersey for another day.
Stage 2 winners. Jonas Ahlstrand of @GiantShimano Theo Bos of @TeamBelkin and from @BissellDT it’s Rubin Zepuntke pic.twitter.com/p71CWXcfPi
— Canadian Cycling Mag (@CDNCyclingMag) September 4, 2014
The riders were relieved to race on a dry day after Wednesday’s chilly deluge. The peloton traveled two neutral laps around Innisfail before heading north to Sylvan Lake to contest two intermediate sprints over one and a half laps of the town. Ahlstrand took the first sprint and Daryl Impey (South Africa/Orica-GreenEdge) the second, with top Canadian Ryan Anderson (Optum) coming runner-up to Impey.
It wasn’t until there were 55-km remaining that a breakaway finally stuck. It started as a 15-man affair, but it fragmented as the long, strung-out bunch pursued. A trio separated itself: King of the Mountains leader Robin Carpenter (USA/Hincapie Development), Simon Yates (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) and Kiel Reijnen (USA/United HealthCare). Then Cameron Wurf (Australia/Cannondale) and American Jim Stemper (5-Hour Energy) joined the escape.
The day’s only King of the Mountains points were on offer at the 27-km to go mark, after the road had dropped down into the Red Deer River basin. At the top of the ascent Yates beat out Carpenter for the maximum points and usurped the red polka-dot jersey.
As the race neared Red Deer for three 4-km laps, Ben King (USA/Garmin-Sharp) and Frenchman Aurélien Passeron (Silber) bridged over to the break to create a leading septet. King, Yates and Reijnen were the last three standing with 10-km to go, but a couple of their breakmates latched back on in an attempt to elude the Belkin and Giant-Shimano led peloton. King was the final fugitive to be absorbed.
@TeamBelkin in the front of the groep 2 laps of 3 km to go @TourOfAlberta pic.twitter.com/OyDXpYm8WT
— Richard (@therocker1963) September 4, 2014
The teams organized themselves to launch their fastmen. Ahlstrand chose the right wheel to follow in Bos, a rider with 35 professional wins on his palmares. Once the Swede hit the afterburners, he had time to celebrate at the line. With the victory and the earlier sprint points, Ahlstrand moves into second in the points competition behind Zepuntke. Thursday’s winner admitted that his stage win wasn’t Giant-Shimano’s priority: “I was trying to help Tom as much as possible – so it worked for both of us.”
Dumoulin has collected quite a few yellow and white young rider’s jerseys already. Asked by Canadian Cycling Magazine what he’ll do with them all, he replied, “I will give them to my family . . . my mom first of course!”
Zach Bell (Team SmartStop) was the top Canadian on Stage 2 at 11th. Anderson keeps the red jersey for best Canadian on GC in 5th place. Anderson told CCM, “That was a hard day. We started racing and never stopped. I’m moving up so I’m pretty happy. But, I’m glad it’s over.”
Ryan Anderson says,”We raced all day! That was a tough one.” It’s another Red Jersey #TOA2014 pic.twitter.com/KutkEIl24u
— Canadian Cycling Mag (@CDNCyclingMag) September 4, 2014
2014 Tour of Alberta Stage 2
1) Jonas Ahlstrand (Sweden/Giant-Shimano)
2) Theo Bos (The Netherlands/Belkin) s.t.
3) Ruben Zepuntke (Germany/Bissel Development) s.t.
11) Zach Bell (Canada/Team SmartStop) s.t.
2014 Tour of Alberta GC
1) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Giant-Shimano) 6:26:23
2) Ruben Zepuntke (Germany/Bissel) +0:09
3) Serghei Tvetcov (Romania/Jelly Belly) +0:14
5) Ryan Anderson (Canada/Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies) +0:17
