Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) joined his teammate Tom Zirbel on the North Star Grand Prix stage 1 podium with a third-place time of 10:02.13 (Image credit: Matthew Moses/Moses Images)
Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) added another win to his standout season on Friday, soloing away from the stage 1 breakaway at the Tour of Alberta and holding off a late charge from Tom-Jelte Slagter to win at Marmot Basin Ski Resort.
The opening day at the 2.1 race started in the town of Jasper and then made its way deep into Jasper National Park for three laps of a 48km circuit before the final 14km climb to Marmot Basin. A 14-rider move containing Huffman and his teammate Sepp Kuss, who finished second on the stage, got away on the first lap and built a gap of nearly three minutes.
When the leaders made the turn onto the final climb, Huffman powered away from the group and then built a small advantage on the long-but-shallow climb. Behind him, Kuss jumped away from the group with about 500 metres to go to place second, while Cannondale-Drapac's Tom-Jelte Slagter, who won the same stage in 2015, jumped out of the chasing field with 2km to go and swept up all the breakaway riders except Huffman and Kuss.
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