Playing out on the same course as last year’s final stage in the Tour of Alberta, Monday’s stage 6 ended in a group sprint, with all eight Team Katusha riders coming to the finish line to see Sergey Lagutin the best-placed team rider for fourth place in the general classification.
"I think things went OK here. I was really hoping to be on the podium in the top three, but obviously the other guys were much stronger than me. I still have both Quebec City and Montreal races coming up so I can hope to show better in those races. I hope my form is still coming along but I’m not sure. I might already be at the top of my limit, but we’ll see. I hope I’m still going well and can be racing at the Worlds," said Sergey Lagutin, referring to the upcoming UCI World Championships in Richmond, Virginia, USA.
The final stage victory went to Nikias Arndt of Team Giant-Alpecin with a winning time of 2:44.57. Rounding out the top three were Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) and Dion Smith of Hincapie Racing Team, all on the same time. Alexey Tsatevich of Katusha finished 7th.
Trek Factory Racing’s Bauke Mollema held the jersey for five of the six stages with a top time of 20:20.28. Joining him on the final podium were Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) at 6-seconds and Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Garmin) at 22-seconds. The gap to Lagutin in fourth was 35-seconds from the top of the leader board.
The final day of racing took place in downtown Edmonton at Sir Winston Churchill Square with a 124,1 km circuit race that consisted of 11 laps that threw just about everything at the riders – technical corners among the high rise buildings, a fast downhill along the river North Saskatchewan River and several looping turns, with every part of the course offering something new. Several laps featured points for the KOM jersey while others offered up sprint points for the final standings. Team Katusha tried one more day to make something happen, attacking in the closing kilometers, but in the end it was a mass sprint coming to the line with Arndt earning the victory.
"It was so fast out there today, it made it impossible to get away. Once the break was brought back we tried to do something, but with all the turns on the corners and the up and down, it just wasn’t possible. The team rode very well and we tried to make something happen every day in this race. It was nice here – the race was well organized and it was good to race in North America," said team rider Sven Erik Bystrøm.
Finally leaving the rain and snow behind, the last day offered up sunshine and the warmest temperatures of the week at 13C. Eight riders went in an early break to hold an advantage of just over one minute while Trek Factory Racing continued to work at the front for race leader Bauke Mollema. The gap was 25-seconds with 2 laps to go but the field was all together for the final trip around the city. Attacks came over and over, but no one could sustain their effort and the group arrived together for the sprint.
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