2014 Tour of Alberta Stage 3: Belkin’s Sep Vanmarcke fires his guns at Edmonton Garrison
Spring Classics expert Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium/Belkin) attacked his WorldTour breakmates before the final corner at the Edmonton Garrison to win Friday's stage of the 2014 Tour of Alberta. Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Giant-Shimano) hung on to the race lead over Stage 1 victor Ruben Zepuntke (Germany/Bissell Development).
Stage 3 winners. Sep Vanmarche @TeamBelkin, Ramunas Navardauskas @GiantShimano and Leigh Howard @ORICA_GreenEDGE pic.twitter.com/5W7R2UfqeB
— Canadian Cycling Mag (@CDNCyclingMag) September 5, 2014
The 157.9-km stage started with two neutral laps of Wataskiwin before heading north to face the stiff crosswinds. Robin Carpenter (USA/Hincapie Development), in the Stage 1 and 2 breakaways, immediately attacked but was brought to heel. Then Jean-Michel Lachance (Canada/Silber) tried his luck to no avail.
Due to west-blowing crosswinds the peloton split at the 39-km mark before the day’s only intermediate sprint. Daryl Impey (South Africa/Orica-GreenEdge) took the sprint victory before the field came together again.
After 87-km, a group of ten bounced off the front, but only two riders stuck it out – Ben Perry of the Canadian National Team and his compatriot Matteo Dal-Cin (Silber). With 49-km to go, the duo became a quartet as Americans Chad Beyer (5-Hour Energy) and Eric Marcotte (SmartStop) joined them.
Behind the breakaway, Orica-GreenEdge and Bissell forced a split in the peloton. Included were Zepuntke with teammates, Dumoulin with a single teammate, top Canadian Ryan Anderson (Optum) and King of the Mountains Simon Yates (Great Britain/Orica-GreenEdge). T he leading group sopped up the escape with 46-km to go and this new, 40-rider bunch stayed ahead of the second group by 30 to 40 seconds.
The race entered the Edmonton Garrison for three laps of 6-km, some of which was on the wide landing strip. After one lap the front group led the second by 25 seconds, with Canadian Christian Meier doing plenty of work for Orica-GreenEdge at the tip of the spear.
Vanmarcke, Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania/Garmin-Sharp) and Leigh Howard (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) broke away on the second lap and had established a 15-second lead by the start of the final lap.
Vanmarcke, who had looked tired in the escape, exploded with 250 metres to go and Navardauskas couldn’t grab his slipstream. It was Vanmarcke’s second triumph on the season. Afterwards he said, “I thought there would be a tail wind but it was a cross wind all day. The peloton worked but not too well. On the laps around the garrison the attack started but we were all tired. The peloton was chasing but not getting any closer. It was a tricky last corner and I knew I had to be aggressive. I started sprinting before the last corner and was happy not to crash.”
Navardauskas revealed the extent of Vanmarcke’s aggression: “You need to be first coming around the corners if you want to win, but Sep kept coming around the corners tight so I couldn’t break ahead. I could hear his tire skidding, so I backed off.”
Dumoulin’s fourth yellow jersey was a special camo edition. With his runner-up spot, Navardauskas takes over the green points jersey from Zepuntke and moves into third on GC. Ryan Anderson is still top Canadian, in 7th place 16-seconds back.
Yup, he’s still in yellow but how cool is that jersey Tom Dumoulin of @GiantShimano #TOA2014 pic.twitter.com/Q02y7h1cFc
— Canadian Cycling Mag (@CDNCyclingMag) September 5, 2014
2014 Tour of Alberta Stage 3
1) Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium/Belkin) 3:12:11
2) Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania/Garmin-Sharp) s.t.
3) Leigh Howard (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) s.t.
14) Ryan Anderson (Canada/Optum) +0:12
2014 Tour of Alberta GC
1) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Giant-Shimano)
2) Ruben Zepuntke (Germany/Bissell Development) +0:09
3) Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania/Garmin-Sharp) +0:12
7) Ryan Anderson (Canada/Optum) +0:16
