Peter Sagan (Cannondale) carried his good form from the USA Pro Challenge into the prologue at the Tour of Alberta in Edmonton on Tuesday night as he convincingly won the opener. Sagan radiated the 7.3km individual time trial in 8:28 to defeat Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) by 13 seconds while Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos-Shimano) was third, 14 seconds adrift.

As a result, Sagan will wear the first-ever leader’s tunic and will carry the overall lead into Wednesday’s first stage - 158km from Strathcona County to Camrose.

Pre-race favourites Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) finished fourth and 10th respectively. Evans dropped 20 seconds to Sagan, while Hesjedal will carry a 30 seconds deficit into Wednesday’s stage.

The course through downtown Edmonton included 12 tricky corners, a lunging descent and a short 1km ascent that was timed to decide who would wear the first KOM jersey. Although most of the competitors chose straight time trial machines, several riders opted for road bikes.

Ludvigsson, a 22-year-old who finished 4th on stage 9 of this year's Giro d'Italia, started 14th out of 117 riders and set the best early time with a mark of 8:42. Belkin's Robert Gesink climbed to within 16 seconds of Ludvigsson but couldn't overtake the young Swede.

David Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp) was the next rider to get close to Ludvigsson, but the five-time US time trial champion fell 15 seconds short.

Ludvigsson enjoyed his lead until Garmin-Sharp's Dennis, 23, starting an hour-and-a-half later in 94th position, rolled across the finish line at full throttle. Dennis covered the course in 8:41, eclipsing the previous best time by a little more than one second.

Dennis held the lead as 13 riders crossed the line before Sagan blasted the competition and pounded 13 seconds into the young Garmin rider. All Sagan had to do next was to sit back and watch as Evans and Hesjedal tried, in vain, to best his time.

Tour of Alberta Prologue:

1 Peter Sagan, Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:08:28  

2 Rohan Dennis, Team Garmin-Sharp 0:00:13”  

3 Tobias Ludvigsson, Team Argos-Shimano 0:00:14”  

4 Cadel Evans, BMC Racing Team 0:00:20”

5 Brent Bookwalter, BMC Racing Team 0:00:21”   

6 Chad Haga, Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies 0:00:23”  

7 Pieter Weening, Orica Green-EDGE 0:00:29”  

8 David Zabriskie, Team Garmin-Sharp 0:00:30”  

9 Tom Zirbel, Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies    

10 Ryder Hesjedal, Team Garmin-Sharp