Sagan wins Tour of Alberta prologue, Hesjedal takes 10th place

Peter Sagan (Cannondale) won the prologue at the inaugural Tour of Alberta in Edmonton on Tuesday. He blasted to the finish line with a time of 8:28 minutes beating Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) by 13 seconds and Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos-Shimano) by an additional second.

“Everyone in the race knew if Sagan rode the way he can, he was going to win,” said Canada’s Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) after the stage.

Sagan will wear the leader’s jersey heading into the first stage, a 158-km race from Strathcona County to Camrose on Wednesday.

The 7.3 km course was held through Edmonton’s city streets and included a king of the mountain ascent that was timed from the 4.2-km mark to the 5.3-km mark.

Simon Geschke (Argos-Shimano) was the first rider off and held the fastest time of 9:03:13 for a short time. He was bumped out of the hot seat by Ludvigsson’s time of 8:42:88. Dennis was the next to hold the fastest time of 8:41:64 until Sagan came in with the winning time.

Hesjedal was the last rider on course and finished with a time of 8:58:24 in 10th place, which put him in a red jersey with a maple leaf, the Tour of Alberta’s award for the top Canadian.

Even though Sagan sits at the top of the general classification and his race favourite, he still showed some self-effacing humour about his abilities after Tuesday’s prologue. “The long climbs of GC are hard for me, because I am very fat,” the Slovak rider said. “I started four years ago as a pro. I’ll see how I continue to grow as a cyclist.”

Results

Peter Sagan (Cannondale) 8:28:01

Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) +0:00:13

Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos-Shimano) +0:00:14

Cadel Evans (BMC) +0:00:20

Brent Bookwalter (BMC) +0:00:21