Vanmarcke outkicks Navardauskas for stage 3 victory

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Belkin's Sep Vanmarcke took Friday's stage 3 win at the Tour of Alberta after out-kicking Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp) and Leigh Howard (Orica-GeeenEdge) in a three-up sprint in front of a select lead group. Giant-Shimano's Tom Dumoulin had to fight hard throughout the day but held onto his gold leader's jersey heading into stage 4.

The front trio escaped on the closing circuits at Edmonton Garrison about 10km from the finish after a difficult day of racing in shifting winds that blew the peloton apart. Vanmarcke grabbed the advantage in the final corner and then held off Navardauskas and Howard at the line.

"I knew it was a really tricky last 500 meters," Vanmarcke said. "Everybody knew that. I wanted to be in second position on those last corners. It would have been perfect if I could start sprinting just before the last corner, and I did. I went full in the last corner, the maximum just not to crash. That was my biggest advantage. I made some meters on Ramunas, and he didn't get back anymore. That last corner was I think only 170 meters to the finish, and then I just needed to be on the front."

Navardauskas, who grabbed the six-second time bonus for second place on the stage, moved into third overall for his effort. He said Vanmarcke's bike-handling skills were the difference in the finale.

"I pulled the last kilometer, but I was still hoping to sit close on the wheel of Sep and try a slower sprint because it was big wind," Navardauskas said. "But Sep is a good handler of the bike, and when he went into the last corner I could hear his tire slipping. He was really going on the edge, so I lost like 10 meters, and I thought, 'OK, that's it.' If I made that first corner, then Sep had big trouble to overpass me because it was a really short sprint. But he knew how to do it."

Friday's 157km route from Wetaskiwin to Edmonton looked on paper like another sure bet for a mass sprint, but the ever-present Alberta winds spoiled any plans the fastmen may have had. The course included no categorized climbs and offered just one sprint about 51km into the day.

As with stage 2 the day before, the angry peloton wasn't very accommodating to riders hoping to get into a breakaway. Groups ranging in size from three to 25 struck out from the peloton but were quickly reeled back. Crosswinds briefly split the field in two about 40km into the stage, but that gap was quickly closed as well.

The intermediate sprint, which offered time bonuses of three, two and one second, split things up before Orica-GreenEdge's Daryl Impey took maximum points ahead of UnitedHealthcare's Robert Forster and Optum Pro Cycling's Ryan Anderson.

A breakaway of two riders finally established after the sprint. Silber Pro Cycling's Matteo Dal-Cin joined Canadian National Team rider Ben Perry went off the front. Then Team SmartStop's Eric Marcotte and 5-hour Energy's Chad Beyer bridged to the leaders to form a lead group of four that had a gap of more than two minutes with just under 50km of racing to go.

Back in the field, attacks from Orica and Bissell Development Team caused a split with approximately 40 riders, including the gold jersey of Dumoulin. That group reeled in the breakaway with 43km to go, and the race reshuffled once more. Bissell and Orica, both of which had good numbers in the lead group, poured on the coals and quickly built a gap of 55 seconds to the chasers.

"It was really, really hard and really, really fast," Dumoulin told Cyclingnews after the stage. "Attacks went from the beginning like yesterday, and then finally a small group got away, and we were actually pretty happy with the situation.

"Then we got completely surprised by the attack of Bissell and Orica," the race leader said. "It was actually a huge mistake that we made. I could just jump over to the first echelon together with Daan Olivier, but two is not enough. We got surprised, but we won't make that mistake again."

The lead group of 40 entered the three 5.8km circuits on the military base outside of Edmonton with about 20 seconds on the rest of the field, which had disintegrated into three groups by that time. Vanmarcke, Navardauskas and Howard escaped the group on the second circuit and built a workable gap that they held to the line. Orica's Aidis Kruopis led the rest of the front group across the line 11 seconds later.

Navardauskas, who started the day 32 seconds down, moved to third overall for his troubles, just 13 seconds down on Dumoulin. Bissell's Ruben Zeputke is second overall, just eight seconds down. The general classification remains tight heading into Saturday's stage 4 run from Edmonton to Strathcona County, with 26 riders less than a minute off Dumoulin's pace.

The stage should be another tough test, as the winding course features six sections of "Canadian Pavé" and three sections of gravel roads that total about 5km. The stage finishes on the tightest and shortest closing circuit of the week.

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