Tour of Alberta: Jonas Ahlstrand wins Stage 2 on late burst
Giant Shimano teammate Tom Dumoulin extends overall lead to nine seconds
Sweden's Jonas Ahlstrand won the second stage of the Tour of Alberta on Thursday.
Theo Bos of the Netherlands placed second while Ruben Zepuntke of Germany, the Stage 1 winner, finished third in the 143-kilometre ride from Innisfail to Red Deer.
Overall race leader Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands finished 28th but retained the yellow jersey, increasing his overall lead by three seconds to stand nine seconds ahead of his closest competitor heading into Stage 3. Dumoulin, also the best young rider on the day, has a two-day time of six hours 26 minutes 23 seconds.
Hugo Houle of Ste-Perpetue, Que., posted the best Canadian result. He crossed the finish line with the main group, in 46th place. Garrett McLeod, Benjamin Perry and Jordan Cheyne also finished among the main group.
Ryan Anderson leads the top Canadian standings, jumping from the seventh to the fifth spot of the General classification, 17 seconds behind Dumoulin.
The 113-rider peloton rode north for 45 kilometres before the big teams started their attacks.
With 52 kilometres left in the race, 14 riders created a small gap that was controlled at 15 seconds. Three riders attacked the lead group of 14 to take the race lead creating the first real breakaway of the day. Two more racers joined the breakaway, reaching a maximum gap of approximately one minute.
Once the peloton regrouped, a few attacks were quickly absorbed, setting up the finish for a bunch sprint with Ahlstrand taking the stage win by edging Bos and Zepuntke at the finish line.