2014 Tour of Alberta Stage 4: Belkin takes two wins in a row as Theo Bos prevails
World Tour team Belkin enjoyed its second consecutive Tour of Alberta win with Theo Bos taking the sprint victory in Saturday's Strathcona County stage. Bos's compatriot Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano), who has led the race since the prologue, keeps the race lead.
He’s still the lead. Tom Dumoulin takes the Smithbuilt hat and yellow jersey again. @TourOfAlberta @GiantShimano pic.twitter.com/gBPNFuNGbM
— Canadian Cycling Mag (@CDNCyclingMag) September 6, 2014
The riders faced three sections of “Canadian pavé” – dirt roads – the first of which came at the 36.3-km mark. Top Canadian Ryan Anderson described his experience with the pavé: “The dirt roads were really loose. A lot of dust was kicking up. I was mid-pack and all I could see was orange from the helmets ahead of me.”
By the first section an eight man breakaway containing Canadians Nic Hamilton (Jelly Belly) and Bruno Langlois (5-Hour Energy) had formed. It made it through the first dirt section and took a 2:20 lead over the peloton before the intermediate sprint, won by Hamilton.
By the second and longest pavé section starting at 82.8 km, the lead was 4:00. A crash in the field sent Canadian National Team member Adam De Vos to the hospital. Anderson’s Optum presented by Kelly Benefit System team drove the pace in the chase and once more had the gap down to 2:00 before the last 2-km section of pavé.
2nd Canadian Pave section at 82.8km #TOA2014 pic.twitter.com/z57cKfncLl
— Tour of Alberta (@TourOfAlberta) September 6, 2014
Garmin-Sharp and Belkin became the interested parties in the peloton as the stage headed towards its three 3-km finishing laps in Strathcona County’s Sherwood Park. The fugitives had only a minute’s gap on the bunch with 24-km to go. Giant-Shimano and Orica-GreenEdge took over the pace-making duties as the race turned north for its conclusion.
In the final 10-km, while the gap steadily diminished, several teams sent representatives to the front of the field. When the finishing circuits began, the break had an advantage of only 15 seconds. Then Belkin mobbed the front of the peloton and the last standing fugitive, Jacob Kauffman (Australia/Garneau),was lassoed with 3.7 km to the line.
United Health Care tried to set something up for Robert Forster (Germany), but Friday’s winner Sep Vanmarcke led out his teammate Bos, who rocketed to victory far ahead of runner-up Daryl Impey (South Africa/Orica-GreenEdge). Impey moved up to third on GC. The top Canadian was Hugo Houle of Canadian National Team in 14th.
@TourOfAlberta Stage 4. Theo Bos @TeamBelkin Daryl Impey @ORICA_GreenEDGE & Jure Kocjan @TeamSmartStop pic.twitter.com/ApOwcW0KTe
— Canadian Cycling Mag (@CDNCyclingMag) September 6, 2014
Bos commented on his team’s pursuit of the breakaway: “On the bad roads we focus on just the roads. The wind wasn’t strong enough today to split the group. At 30-km we knew it would be a bunch finish.”
Sunday sees the conclusion of the 2014 Tour of Alberta in Edmonton with 11 circuits of the city. Dumoulin described his challenge in maintaining the lead: “the hills tomorrow suit me so that is good, but Impey got some time today and he is hard to drop on hills. There are lots of guys within 30-seconds so we will have to work hard. I’ve lost the leaders jersey on the last day before.”
2014 Tour of Alberta Stage 4
1) Theo Bos (The Netherlands/Belkin)
2) Daryl Impey (South Africa/Orica-GreenEdge) s.t.
3) Jure Kocjan (Slovenia/Team SmartStop) s.t.
14) Hugo Houle (Canadian National Team) s.t.
2014 Tour of Alberta GC
1) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Giant-Shimano)
2) Ruben Zepuntke (Germany/Bissell) +0:08
3) Daryl Impey (South Africa/Orica-GreenEdge) +0:09
7) Ryan Anderson (Canada/Optum) +0:16
