Dillier wins breakaway sprint at Tour of Alberta
Silvan Dillier (BMC) won the second stage of the Tour of Alberta in Red Deer on Thursday. He out-paced his breakaway companion Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) in a sprint to the line. Race leader Peter Sagan (Cannondale) won the bunch sprint for third place.
“[Winning] is a special thing but I didn’t beat Peter Sagan in a sprint, I attacked him before,” Dillier said. “We knew it would be tough to make it to the finish, but we knew we had a chance.
“I didn’t come to this race saying I’d win anything. I came to help put my team in a position to win. I’m surprised. If you can win something, it’ll always help your career. This will be a good advantage for me to make the team next season.”
Sagan maintained his lead in the overall classification and seemed somewhat OK that he didn’t win three stages in a row. “I’m glad BMC won, it’s boring if I win every stage, isn’t it?” Sagan said. “Today was really hard. We averaged 51 kph over the first 100 km and then the breakaway went after 100 km. It was very fast.
“This morning I said if the other teams don’t come help us, that we wouldn’t pull, even if I lose the yellow jersey. It was our strategy. At the end, I wanted to try to come alone because the sprint was very dangerous today.”
The second stage of the Tour of Alberta was a 174.8 km race from Devon to Red Deer. The peloton contested two intermediate sprints and one king of the mountain ascent before finishing the race on short circuits.
Runner-up Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) won the first intermediate sprint in Wetaskiwin, 57.3 km into the stage. He was followed by William Clarke (Argos-Shimano) and Luke Keough (UnitedHealthcare).
Eric Young (Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies) won the second intermediate sprint in Ponoka, 94.6 km into the stage. Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) was second and Patrick Gretsch (Argos-Shimano) was third.
Shortly after the sprint, Dillier and Tvetcov gained more than four minutes on the field.
Tvetcov took the points at the top of Red Deer River, 148.8 km into the race. Their gap dropped to under two minutes as teams Cannondale and Argos-Shimano pushed of the peloton.
The pair held a gap of 30 seconds with one kilometre to go. Dillier proved to be the fastest of the two and won the sprint to the line ahead of Tvetcov. Sagan sprinted in for third place ahead of the main field.
“My sprint is bad, so I just took my chance with one kilometre to go,” Tvetcov said. “For a small team, our goal is to have a guy in the breakaway everyday. It’s good for our team and it’s good for us. Today, I had my chance.”
Stage results:
1. Silvan Dillier (BMC)
2. Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda)
3. Peter Sagan (Cannondale) +0:00:16
Overall classification:
1.Peter Sagan (Cannondale)
2. Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) +0:00:26
3. Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos-Shimano) +0:00:28
