Mathew Hayman put race leader Tom Dumoulin and his Giant-Shimano team under pressure in yesterday's stage of the Tour of Alberta when he crowned an aggressive Orica-GreenEDGE start by riding in the breakaway for most of the day. In the end, he came away from the stage empty-handed but the Australian team kept its GC options intact.

Mathew Hayman was awarded the most aggressive rider on stage one of the Tour of Alberta having spent a cold and wet day out in front.

Meanwhile, ORICA-GreenEDGE’s general classification hopes remain in tact with Daryl Impey, Pieter Weening and Christian Meier all amongst the select sprint finish.

“Today’s stage was a horrible day, eight degrees and raining the whole day so the guys really suffered in the cold,” sport director Matt Wilson said.

“They did a great job at the start being aggressive. Mat Hayman, Daryl Impey and Christian Meier all got up the road early on but it wasn’t to be.

“Then Mat got away from that group and stayed away for pretty much the whole race. It was a great ride by him.”

Hayman spent the day in a three-man break alongside Nathan Van Hooydonck (BDT) and Robin Carpenter (HSD).  The trio sat at a four-minute advantage before Giant Shimano and Garmin-Sharp pushed the pace in the peloton in the latter half of racing.

As the gap decreased, Van Hooydonck dropped from the lead group before the remaining duo of Hayman and Carpenter were eventually caught with six kilometres to ride.

A select sprint finish saw Ruben Zepuntke (BDT) take out the victory. Tom Dumoulin (GIA) retains the overall lead.

Whilst not featuring in the sprint, ORICA-GreenEDGE’s trio of leaders finished with the same time as Zepuntke. Meier remains the team’s highest placed general classification rider in ninth position, Impey one behind in tenth.

“In the sprint the guys struggled to get organised,” Wilson explained.

“It was more just survival at that point as they were all so cold.”