The second stage of the Tour of Alberta has been won by Australian Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) in a sprint finish ahead of Niklas Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) and Alexey Tsatevich (Katusha), with Ireland’s Sam Bennett (Bora Argon 18) in fifth.
Todays’s stage was a looped course in the County of Grande Prairie which started and finished at Evergreen Park. The first 130 kilometres were primarily flat and the final 40 kilometres featured two 20 kilometre loops with a 1.5 kilometre climb out of the Wapiti river valley with the final 8 kilometres a flat run in to the finish.
A break of four riders got clear early on which included Bennett’s Bora Argon 18 team mate Cesare Benedetti, and Benedetti was the last of these escapees to be reeled in inside the last ten kilometres.
In the closing kilometres, another breakaway went clear which included Tom Jelte Slagter but once again they were brought back with 3kms remaining thanks to the work of Trek and Orica-GreenEdge who were working for Matthews.
In the sprint to the line, Matthews just edged out Arndt for his first win since a stage of the Tour of Switzerland in June.
The race continues tomorrow with a 182-kilometre stage to Jasper National Park (Miette Hot Springs) with a five kilometre climb to the finish which has an average gradient of 8%.
Here are the final 5 kilometres of the race:
