Tom Dumoulin defended his leader's jersey on the first stage of the Tour of Alberta after a very cold and wet day in Canada. The Dutchman admitted that he had suffered in the cold and that he had not had his best legs.

Tom Dumoulin and his teammates successfully defended his race lead on the opening road stage of the Tour of Alberta despite testing conditions throughout the stage. Cold and wet weather hampered the team’s efforts but Dumoulin was able to finish safely in the front group at the finish to defend the lead he set in yesterday’s opening prologue.

The stage was based around a hilly circuit that was to be covered six times, including a short, sharp ascent with gradients of up to 15% coming 5.5km from the finish line.

Dumoulin was on his guard early on and got himself into a dangerous move of 14 riders that slipped away early on but this was not to last and a small trio formed to spend the majority of the day out front. Their lead grew to over four minutes but the team fought hard, and grouped around Dumoulin , led the pursuit before being aided by other teams with a vested interest in a bunch sprint, and the race was all back together with around 6km to go.

One or two attacks came and went in the run in but a group sprint was on the cards and from it Ruben Zepuntke (Bissel Development) came through fastest.

Dumoulin finished in 13th place, while Simon Geschke finished not far behind in 18th, moving up one spot overall to 11th.

“It was horrible,” Dumoulin said of the day’s conditions. “I was actually suffering, and I didn’t have my best day. I think the cold caught me a little bit, but I kept the jersey, and the team rode really, really hard. There were three really strong riders in the front, and we had some difficulty bringing them back. Luckily some other teams started helping. Then we caught them just before the last climb, and it was enough to keep the lead. So I’m really satisfied about that.

“My body is not used to these conditions. I’ve been racing in sunny and warm conditions in Europe, so, this reminds me of the Spring in The Netherlands.

“I was a little bit tired today. I am still a little bit jet-lagged after coming over from Holland. It is like finishing at 2 a.m. for me, so the body reacts strange. My team worked hard and I’m happy to still have leader’s jersey.

Team Giant-Shimano coach Aike Visbeek added: “The rain made it a really hard day and the team had to work really hard to keep things under control. The gap went out further than we would have liked and that meant that we had to use more guys and energy to get it back, which resulted in not being able to go for the stage win.

“Jonas [Ahlstrand] positioned the guys [Dumoulin and Geschke] in the top three on the final climb and they finished in the front group. Tom was strong in the final and reeled in some strong attacks but it would have been good to have someone there challenging for the stage.”