Tom Dumoulin crushed the opposition in the Tour of Alberta prologue when he put a massive 14 seconds into Sergei Tvetcov on a short 4km course. The results was due to careful planning that saw the Dutchman make the right choices both when it came to equipment and starting time.

Tom Dumoulin has taken his fourth win of the season with a convincing victory in the opening four kilometre prologue of the Tour of Alberta. Dumoulin was the only rider to go around the tough course with an average speed of over 40 km/h and the decision to use the Giant Trinity Advanced SL bike rather than go for the road bike as many did proved rewarding.

Simon Geschke just missed out on a top ten, coming home in 12th, 23 seconds down on Dumoulin's time, with Daan Olivier next back in 18th position. With their combined results, Team Giant-Shimano now also lead the team classification.

The short, four kilometre effort to get the second edition of the Tour of Alberta underway was a tough opening test for the riders with a finish that split opinion as to the choice of weaponry for the stage. The tough hill finish saw most riders choose their road bike with clip-on aero bars, but Dutch time trial champion Dumoulin stuck to what he knew worked well for him with his time trial bike.

The choice paid off as he stormed around the opening part of the course before holding enough speed at the bottom of the climb to climb well right to the finish, spreading his effort and finishing strongly.

The team came into the race looking for a strong prologue from both Dumoulin and Geschke and both did not disappoint with Geschke finishing not far off the pace on the same time as ninth.

Team Giant-Shimano coach Aike Visbeek said after the stage: “Tom was the favourite here and he was really motivated to win. He felt that he delivered and did a good effort out on the course, dividing his energy well and rode the final climb with enough speed from bottom to top.

“The decision to ride the Giant TT bike proved to be the right one, as most went for a road bike with the climb at the end but the Trinity bike worked for Tom and he did not lose much time on the climb with this.

“We will now look to defend the lead over the coming days. Everybody is motivated to keep the jersey and we will continue to look for opportunities in the sprints too.”

Dumoulin added: “In Holland, it’s eight hours later, so we decided that I start early. It felt like starting in the middle of the night already, so the earlier the better.

“It was getting colder and colder up there. But I'm really happy of course. It was a good decision to start early. We arrived here from Europe, and with the jet lag I thought it would be better to start early, and then I had to wait one-and-a-half hours, but it was worth it.

“The altitude is 1,200 metres here and I’m coming from sea level. You do notice the difference, but eventually it didn’t make a big difference in my performance and the result.

“I paced myself well on the early section and kept some energy for the last hill, and it worked out pretty well.

“For me, I'm pretty comfortable on the time trial bike of course, and I also did the climb actually in the bars. If you have a problem putting out the same power on the time trial bike as on the road bike, then you should better choose the road bike on a parcour like this. But I don't have that problem, and the time trial bike is faster, so you can make up time on the flat and don't lose too much on the hill.

“It was of course a question who would be up there after the prologue, and I'm up there now. We'll do everything with the team to get this jersey home. The gaps were bigger than I thought, so that will be nice for the next couple of days. We're pretty confident, and we'll work hard for the jersey.

“We now have more of an idea of the challenge on GC and I will now do everything with the team to get this jersey home.”