Tour of Alberta: Slagter wins again at Marmot Basin

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Cannondale-Garmin's Tom-Jelte Slagter won his second consecutive stage Saturday at the Tour of Alberta, emerging from a barrage of attacks up the final climb to Marmot Basin to take the stage 4 victory. Overall leader Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) finished second to preserve his race lead by six seconds over Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), who finished third.

"For me it was a nice race because I had won already yesterday and that took the pressure off of me," Slagter said in the post-race press conference. "We were very relaxed as a team for this stage with Ryder [Hesjedal], [Davide] Formolo and Nate Brown - a very good team for today. We were confident that we could do a good result.

“For me, personally, I just had to wait and wait, and hang on for as long as possible and try to do my sprint like I did yesterday in the end. I’m glad I won.”

Mollema finished, again, in second place after bringing back a one-kilometre-to-go attack from rival Yates on the climb. As a result he maintained his lead in the overall classification by six seconds over Yates and 22 seconds over Slagter. 

"He [Yates] made a really good attack," Mollema said. "I was on his wheel and he went on the right side, so I got boxed in a little bit. He took two or three seconds, and to close a gap like that is not easy. It was one of the hardest kilometres of my life. He was only six seconds behind me in the GC. I was close to breaking… but in the end I managed to close the gap.

“I saw that Tom-Jelte was on my wheel and he is very fast on the sprint. I couldn’t go any faster. I’m happy with second place and to defend the jersey after all the work my teammates did today.”

How it unfolded

The fourth stage of the Tour of Alberta was the toughest on paper, with the second summit finish of the event routed up a 12km climb to Marmot Basin Ski Area. The 162km race started in Jasper under dry and slightly warmer temperatures than the previous day’s rain-soaked jaunt into Jasper National Park.

The scenic circuit-style route (three laps) took the peloton alongside the emerald green Athabasca River and on tree-lined narrow roads before turning onto the famed Icefields Parkway and then back into Jasper. On the last lap, the peloton turned off onto Marmot Road for the final ascent.

After placing second on the stage 3 mountaintop finish at Miette Hot Springs, Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) moved into the overall race lead by six seconds ahead of Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) and 20 seconds ahead of Sergey Lagutin (Katusha).

The early breakaway of three riders included Logan Owen (Axeon), Scott Thwaites (Bora-Argon 18) and Thomas Vaubourzeix (Lupus Racing). They gained a maximum of 5:30 at 30km into the race, but that gap gradually declined and stabilised at three minutes at the 100km mark.

Trek Factory Racing assumed their rightful position at the front of the peloton for race leader Mollema, and with 25km to go they had reduced the gap to the breakaway to 2:35.

Temperatures climbed to 15 degrees Celsius, and for the first time since the start of the Tour of Alberta in Grande Prairie on Wednesday, riders started shedding their winter racing gear, exposing bare arms and legs.

The three breakaway riders approached the turn off to Marmot Road with a smaller gap of 1:20, but they kept pressing on trying to hold their lead ahead of the final climb.

Owen made one last attack on the climb to rid his breakaway companions, but it wasn’t long before Cannondale-Garmin’s Ryder Hesjedal bridged across to him. Owen, tired from being in the alll-day breakaway, lost Hesjedal's wheel fairly quickly and the peloton caught and passed him.

Hesjedal continued on alone until Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis) bridged across, and the pair held a slim five-second lead over the chasing Trek Factory Racing team.

Morton dropped Hesjedal from his rear wheel and continued up the climb in a solo attempt to win the stage with five kilomtres to go but he too was reeled back in by Trek.

Simon Spilak (Katusha) launched an attack from the field, drawing out Hesjedal with him, but the Canadian once again faded. Spilak, only 29 seconds back on GC, desperately tried to gain time on the field and force Trek Factory Racing to burn their matches in the chase.

Mollema moved to the front to bring back Spilak on his own, but he was closely followed by Katusha riders Ilnur Zakarin and Sven Erik Bystrom. Once Spilak was caught, Bystrom launched his attack, putting more pressure on Mollema.

Bystrom was caught and passed, leaving the race open for Davide Formolo (Cannondale-Garmin) to counter-attack. The Italian’s teammate and stage 3 winner Slagter was the next to go. Mollema continued to absorb attacks from Cannondale-Garmin and Katusha, but when there was a lull in the field Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge) made a move.

Michael Woods (Optum Pro Cycling) moved in behind Meier, who was working for Adam Yates, and the select group of riders raced up the last kilometre in single file.

Yates made his move against an exhausted group with roughly 500 metres to go, but Mollema had just enough energy to drag back the British rider with Slagter on his wheel.

When the gap was closed with 200 metres to go, Slagter sprinted around Mollema to take the victory atop Marmot Basin. 

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