This is my first time being between Vancouver and, oh say, Hamilton, Ontario in Canada. So why am I in beautiful Alberta?
For the Tour of Alberta of course!
The 4 kilometer prologue through Canada Olympic Park, home of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics (remember the Jamaican bobsled team?), featured a massive climb for the final 1.5 kilometers.
Hugo Houle rides for the World Tour team AG2R, but as the French outfit isn't racing in Alberta, he will ride for the composite Canadian National Team this week.
Matt Goss.
Georg Preidler.
Theo Bos.
Ramunas Navardauskas. I had a great chat with my favorite Lithuanian rider today when, after he had finished his time trial and was returning to the buses, I yelled his name unnecessarily loudly as I am prone to doing. He slowly turned his head back–No, it's not her is it?! And sure enough, when he saw me, he burst out laughing as usual and pulled a U turn to come talk with me.
Eric Young.
Because the course was relatively compact, I was able to watch the race from a few different spots. Unfortunately, I had told my friends I was heading up to the finish line and then never actually got much further than the final kilometer. Oops.
Dennis Van Winden.
Fabian Wegmann.
Jure Kocjan.
Alex Candelario.
Davide Frattini.
Cristiano Salerno.
Matt Hayman.
Simon Geschke.
Nicky Van Der Lijke.
Steele Von Hoff.
Eric Marcotte.
Nic Hamilton.
Ryan Anderson.
U23 world champion Matej Mohoric.
Daryl Impey finished 11th in his first day back of racing.
Sep Vanmarcke.
Adam De Vos.
James Oram.
Brad Huff.
Caleb Fairly.
Ted King warming up.
Rob Britton.
Thierry Hupond.
Steven Kruijswijk.
Phil Gaimon.
Jordan Cheyne.
Zach Bell.
Christian Meier.
Ben King.
Serghei Tvetcov.
Will Routley.
Kiel Reijnan.
Ted King.
Simon Yates.
Daan Olivier.
Tom Danielson was the final rider to start the demanding course.
When the dust was settled, favorite Tom Dumoulin had come good with an easy victory with 14 seconds between him and second place. Below: Dutch time trial champion Dumoulin received the leader's jersey.
Serghei Tvetcov finished in second and also received the sprinter's jersey.
Third in the prologue, Tom Danielson was awarded the king of the mountains jersey.
Back on stage again, Dumoulin was the best young rider.
Davide Formolo in the most aggressive rider's jersey.
Zach Bell finished in 8th, earning him the best Canadian rider's jersey.
The podium.
The jerseys (minus the best young rider jersey).
The weather promises to be nothing short of miserable for tomorrow's circuit stage, so it should be interesting…!