Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) rode smartly and strongly on yesterday's third stage of the Tour of Alberta to win the stage and unseat race leader Peter Sagan (Cannondale). In a race expected to be dominated the by sprinters, the wind caused havoc on the peloton and allowed the strongmen to come to the fore.

Most had expected Peter Sagan to completely dominate the inaugural Tour of Alberta but at the end of stage 3, it's another youngster who leads the race. Rohan Dennis benefited from strong crosswinds that blew the race apart and ended up winning the stage and take the lead away from Sagan.

Dennis made it into the select 18-rider group at a time where all riders were on their knees. Up against 4 BMC riders and 3 5-Hour riders he played it smart and made the selection when the group was whittled down to just riders. In the end, he kept his head calm and narrowly edged out Brent Bookwalter (BMC) in the sprint.

“It was the hardest stage so far,” he said. “The crosswind from 5km when we turned right, it split it to bits. From there it was a time trial for 160 km for the rest of the race.”

Until now, the time difference has mainly been made in the prologue. With numerous riders close to each other on GC, Dennis found himself in a tricky situation.

“It was a little bit of worry for a second because Brookwalter is fairly close to me, so is [Gretsch.] I had to worry about them jumping me or even them sitting on. In the end we came to the conclusion that we had to work together to stay away.”

The result is a bit of a surprise for Dennis who didn't expect the race to suit him well.

“I really came here to get a result in the prologue and then fly by ear," he said. "But once we got the break going things started to play in my head that it could turn out to be the yellow jersey, or even just the white jersey stitched up. It’s great to wear the yellow in the first ever Tour of Alberta!”

Dennis will try to defend his jersey on today's fourth stage which is the hilliest. However, a rather flat finish and a strong Garmin team should make Dennis comfortable that he can keep his 11-second lead over Bookwalter.