Theo Bos (Belkin) made up for his disappointment after stage 2 when he took a hugely comfortable victory in stage 4 of the Tour of Alberta. Benefiting from a great lead-out from Sep Vanmarcke, he easily beat Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Jure Kocjan (SmartStop) to make it two in a row for Belkin while Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) enjoyed an easy day and defended his overall lead.

Two days ago Theo Bos was hugely disappointed when he was beaten by Jonas Ahlstrand (Giant-Shimano) in the bunch sprint on stage 2 of the Tour of Alberta. Today he got his revenge when he showed amazing speed to take a comfortable win in stage 4.

On a pretty calm day in usually windy Alberta, it all came down to a big bunch sprint after Belkin had worked hard to bring back the early break in the finale. In the end, Bos was given the perfect lead-out by his teammate Sep Vanmarcke and even though Daryl Impey did a great sprint, no one was even close to passing the fast Dutchman.

After yesterday’s windy drama, the riders expected more of the same when they tackled stage 4 that brought them over 163.5km from Edmonto to Stratcona County. With no categorized climbs, the course was almost completely flat but offered lots of exposed roads in windy terrain. Furthermore, the riders had to tackle a number of dirt road sections that made it look like a small Paris-Roubaix.

The riders took off under beautiful sunny conditions but unlike yesterday there wasn’t much wind. This made for a lot calmer stage than we have had in the first few stages and right from the beginning, 5 riders got clear.

They were joined by another rider and after 6.6km of racing, Bruno Langlois (5-Hour), Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthCare), Aurelien Passeron (Silber), Gregory Daniel (Bissell), Jacob Kauffman and Janvier Hadi (both Garneau) were 10 seconds ahead. While they started to build a bigger advantage, Travis Livermon (SmartStop) set off in pursuit and he was later joined by Nic Hamilton (Jelly Belly).

The duo fought hard to make the junction and for a long time, they stayed around 35 seconds behind the leaders while the peloton was at 1.35. At one point, they started to lose ground but they refused to give up and as they hit the first dirt road section after 35km of racing, they were just 20 seconds behind while the peloton was at more than 3 minutes.

The chasers finally made the junction while Belkin accelerated hard on the dirt road. The fast pace brought the gap down to 2.20 as Hamilton beat Clarke and Langlois in the first intermediate sprint.

The peloton again slowed down and at the 66km mark, the escapees had extended their advantage to 4.10. The peloton kept it around that mark for a while before the riders approached the second gravel sector.

Here Belkin again accelerated and the hard pace brought the gap down to 2.05 while a few riders hit the deck. One of them Adam De Vos (Canada) left the race in an ambulance.

With 50km to go, the gap was 2.30 and now Optum took control. The American team wanted to set Ryan Anderson or Eric Young up for a sprint win and they kept the gap stable around 2.30, with Tom Zirbel doing a lot of work.

With 40km to go, they had brought their deficit down to 1.20 but that prompted the escapees to react. They managed to reopen their advantage to 1.40 and apparently the Optum riders were unable to bring them back.

With 22km to go, Garmin-Sharp briefly hit the front with Ben King but they quickly decided to stop their effort. Instead, Belkin started to work for Theo Bos, with David Tanner and Tom Leezer taking huge turns on the front.

With 16km to go, the Dutch team had brought the gap down to 45 seconds and now the riders were approaching a change of direction. Giant-Shimano amassed on the front with Tom Dumoulin but it was Orica-GreenEDGE who launched a big attack in the wind.

However, Pieter Weening only rode on the front for a few seconds before Mathew Hayman called off the attack and the pace briefly went down. Belkin went back to work and kept the gap around 30 seconds for a little while.

With 12km to go, the escapees were still 25 seconds ahead and now the fight for position had really started. Several teams lined out their trains on the front of the peloton as the Belkin riders got swamped.

As the riders entered the finishing circuit, Belkin were back in control. Up ahead, the attacking started when Clarke launched a move and he was joined by Kauffman.

The pair were brought back and instead Hamilton tried his hand. Clarke, Kauffman and Livermon joined him but the escapees found back together.

Belkin were still riding hard on the front with Jonathan Hivert doing a lot of work and with 7km to go, they were just 15 seconds behind. Meanwhile, the attacking continued and it was Kauffman who got a gap.

Langlois and Livermon joined him but as they entered the finishing straight for the second time, the group was back together. Kauffman launched the next attack while Clarke, Hamilton and Hadi took off in pursuit.

It was all in vain though and with 5km 50 go, Belkin had brought everyone back. The entire 8 riders from the Dutch team were lined out on the front as they swallowed Livermon and Kauffman up as the final two riders.

Just as the junction was made, an Optum rider made an attack but now Orica-GreenEDGE had joined forces with Belkin. Matthew Goss brought the lone attacker back as they entered the finishing straight for the penultimate time.

Optum now changed tactics and instead, they launched their train for Ryan Anderson. The team put fiver riders on the front but was unable to respond when Adam Farabaugh (Garneay) attacked.

Garmin took control but they had a hard time bringing the lone attacker back. With 1.5km to go, he was still a few seconds ahead and briefly increased his advantage.

The American passed the flamme rouge as the first rider but UnitedHealthCare brought him back with 800m to go. That was when Vanmarcke launched a fierce acceleration and he easily passed the two remaining UnitedHealthCare riders. Robert Förster tried to move onto his wheel but no one had a kick that could match Bos when he launched his sprint.

Tom Dumoulin enjoyed a calm day in the saddle and managed to defend his 8-second over Ruben Zepuntke (Bissell) while Impey moved into third courtesy of bonus seconds, 1 second further adrift. Dumoulin now goes into the final stage which may be the hardest of the race. Consisting of 11 laps of a tough finishing circuit in Edmondton, the stage has a tough climb and the many passages is set to do some damage on a tired peloton.