Peter Sagan (Cannondale) is the overwhelming favourite to win the inaugural edition of the Tour of Alberta which kick off today with a 7,3km prologue in Edmonton. In a race mostly dominated by sprint stages, the Slovakian has a good chance of taking his third overall win in a stage race.

Recently, Canadian cycling has blossomed. Ryder Hesjedal gave the public interest in the sport a massive boost by winning the Giro d'Italia and  the new two WorldTour one-day race in Quebec and Montreal have put the big country on the cycling map.

Later today Canada will take a further step into the core of cycling countries by hosting its first ever high-level stage race. The 2.1 Tour of Alberta kicks off with a 7,3km prologue in Edmonton and has a attracted a star-studded line-up.

The race is set to fill the void on the North American calendar in between the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado and the WorldTour one-day races which will be held on September 13 and 15 respectively. It offers rider a further incentive to make the trip across the Atlantic as they can put together a solid schedule of high-quality racing.

While the USA Pro Challenge is a race for climbers and the one-day races suit the Ardennes specialists, the Tour of Alberta is one for the sprinters. The only hilly stage has been cancelled due to flooding and so the race is now built up of a prologue and 5 flat stages.

This marks Cannondale's Peter Sagan out as the big favourite to win his first stage race for more than two years. The Slovakian recently dominated the USA Pro Challenge by winning four stages and should perform well on this kind of course. The technical prologue suits him well - just recall how he beat Fabian Cancellara in the 2012 Tour de Suisse opener - and he should pick up plenty of bonus seconds along the way.

The race does, however, some high-quality opposition. Local hero Hesjedal spearheads a strong Garmin roster that includes a host of time trial specialists like David Millar, Rohan Dennis, David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde that may all shine on the opening day. Cadel Evans makes his return to competition as part of a BMC team built up of attackers while Orica-GreenEDGE put their faith in sprinter Aidis Kruopis and Cameron Meyer for the time trial.

Argos-Shimano line up their usual squad of sprinters with Luka Mezgec set to produce the strongest challenge to Sagan while Patrick Gretsch, Simon Geschke and Tobias Ludvigsson have set their sights on the opening time trial. The final ProTeam is Belkin whose roster includes sprinter Mark Renshaw and climbers Robeert Gesink, Steven Kruijswijk and Tom-Jelte Slagter who use the race to prepare for the later one-day races.

They will be up against strong North American opposition with UnitedHealthCare lining up their famous blue train of sprinters, Jelly Belly putting their faith in American champion Fred Rodriguez and Optum presenting sprinters Eric Young and Ken Hanson. They all hope to create a surprise by beating Sagan in a race that is tailor-made to the Slovakian's characteristics.