One day after Sep Vanmarcke's great victory, Theo Bos made it two in a row for Belkin when he sprinted to the win in stage 4 of the Tour of Alberta. The Dutchman benefited from a strong lead-out from Vanmarcke and Dennis van Winden.
The Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM continued its winning ways Saturday, launching Theo Bos to a convincing victory in the 163.5km fourth stage of the 2014 Tour of Alberta, Canada, at Broadmoor Lake Park.
Bos, a five-time world champion on the track, timed his move perfectly, coming off the wheels of teammates Dennis van Winden and Sep Vanmarcke — the end result of a brilliant team effort — with 300 meters to go to finish several bike lengths ahead of Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) and Jure Kocjan (Smartstop).
“They timed it really well, my teammates. I only followed,” said the Dutchman from Hierden, 31. “In the end, I waited to make my sprint, and when I attacked I knew it was enough to win.
"With one lap to go all the teams were making their move to take the lead with three or four kilometers to go until the finish. So everybody wants to make their move with their sprinter. At that point we lost a little position. There was a strong headwind before the last corner, so we were able to come back. I was in fourth position through the last corner, so that was perfect. I'm really happy that it worked out in the end."
Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) maintained the gold-and-white jersey as leader. Vanmarcke, who won Friday’s stage, continues to lead the Belkin boys on the general classification with 11th, at 30 seconds; Belkin’s Steven Kruijswijk of the Netherlands lies in 17th place overall, at :47.
The wandering, rough-and-tumble stage from Edmonton to Broadmoor Lake Park through the wide-open prairie of Alberta’s Strathcona County included six sections of “Canadian Pavé” and other challenges on “dust-controlled” roads. Unrelenting winds also were a factor.
“It was a great day for us,” Belkin Sports Director Michiel Elijzen. “Thankfully, we didn’t have much bad luck with equipment or flat tires.”
Most of the stage was spent chasing an eight-man breakaway that gained a one-time advantage of more than 4 minutes before being absorbed by the Belkin-led peloton on the first of three finishing circuits around Broadmoor Lake Park.
“With some of the Canadian teams, we controlled the race for a bunch sprint,” Elijzen said. “We got them with 6km to go. That was perfect.”
Belkin then hit the front en masse, sending Bos to the team’s 21st win of the season.
“All the boys were riding really well. In the final, we had a great lead out from Dennis and Sep, and Theo finished it off,” Elijzen said. “Great victory, second one this week, more than we’d hoped for.”
The 2014 Tour of Alberta concludes Sunday with a 121km circuit race in the heart of downtown Edmonton, including 11 laps of an 11km circuit featuring a short but steep climb up Bellamy Hill Road and a start/finish line at Churchill Square.
“Tomorrow will be a hard stage. Because the general classification is very close, it should be very aggressive,” Elijzen said. “They predict some rain, so hopefully we can move Sep, or Steven, up on the general classification, or go for a stage win with Theo again.”
"It's a good race for us so far, one time second and two victories," Bos said. "Tomorrow we see for GC what we can do, but we are already really happy with the results so far."
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