2015 San Sebastian champion Adam Yates has finished third for the second consecutive stage at the Tour of Alberta in Canada.

The queen stage four concluded with a 12km ascent to the finish line and it didn’t disappoint, igniting fireworks at the head of the field for an exciting finale.

ORICA-GreenEDGE’s Yates joined the flurry of attacks with two kilometres to go and launched a secondary move inside the final kilometre to enter the final 500m with a slight advantage.

Yesterday’s stage winner Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Garmin) managed to repeat his efforts to steal the victory whilst Bauke Mollema (Treak Factory Racing) finished second, just ahead of Yates.

“Adam attacked in a spot where it got steep just outside a kilometre to go and went around a bend into a slight headwind,” sport director Dave McPartland explained.

“Mollema was marking him heavily, as you would expect, and Slagter was getting a free ride behind him so the cards were against Adam a little but he gave it a full crack and committed 100%.

“In hindsight maybe it was a little early but it was a really good effort to try to win the stage, it just wasn’t to be today.”

With two stages remaining, Yates remains six seconds behind Mollema on general classification.

“It definitely a tough ask but I’m not ruling it out,” McPartland said of the chances to steal the overall title in the final two days of racing. “It’s always possible, you never know what can happen.”