Following a perfect lead-out by the team Nikias Arndt sprinted to victory on the closing stage of the Tour of Alberta. 

The final stage of the Tour of Alberta was a circuit race of 11 laps, which included the steep slope of Bellamy Hill and a start and finish at Edmonton’s iconic Sir Winston Churchill Square.

After 125km Arndt was the fastest from the bunch sprint in the streets of Edmonton. Bauke Mollema wrapped up the overall win in Canada. Georg Preidler and Tobias Ludvigsson finished in 15th and 16th place on the final GC.

“It is a relief,” said Nikias. “I wanted to get a victory so bad, but it didn’t work for a long time. So it’s nice to have this one in the pocket.

“As a team we really deserve this win, certainly after my really close second place on stage two. It was a hard week and a pretty hard stage so it is great to see that I’m able to win after big efforts.

“It was cold, wet and hard. We had a great team, we motivated each other and today we won together. There were a large crowds along the road so it was nice to race here.

“The sprint went even better than our plan. We did an awesome lead out and I could wait till 180m to go. The guys did a perfect job and I enjoyed getting such a fantastic lead out. I am really thankful to the team, they really did great during the whole stage.”

Coach Aike Visbeek added: “It is a great victory. Our plan and goal was to focus on a sprint with Nikias and the team carried out  the plan to perfection.

“It was a real team job where everyone had their part of the work. Chad [Haga] protected Nikias the whole day, so he didn’t have to do any unnecessary effort. Fredrik [Ludvigsson] helped chasing in the final 40km. Tobias [Ludvigsson] and Chad kept the train in position in the finale. Georg [Preidler] and Ramon [Sinkeldam] did an awesome job on the lead-out in order to catapult Nikias to the win in the bunch sprint.

”A well-deserved victory which was established after a week of focused and strong teamwork. As a team we can only be very proud of this effort.”