EDMONTON — South African Daryl Impey used a stunningly strong sprint in the last 100 metres to win the final stage of the Tour of Alberta Sunday, a victory that earned him a 10-second time bonus that gave him the overall championship.
It was a shocking finish to the six-day Tour that had seen Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands wear the leader’s yellow jersey from Day 1. And he was headed for the overall title until Impey’s surge in the final metres of the 734-kilometre Tour.
“We had nothing to lose today,” said Impey, a last-minute replacement on the Orica-Greenedge team. “We took the initiative and tried to get every second we could. Today was a bit gamble for us. When you gamble like we did, sometimes things pay off. I’m not known as the world’s best sprinter … but the team did such a great lead-up, put me in such a good position I was able to win.”
When Dumoulin faded in the final 500 metres, Impey was able to grab the championship by one second. Impey finished in two hours 46 minutes 22 seconds and won $12,312.11. Dumoulin, who finished with the same time as Impey, takes home $6,209.58. German Ruben Zepuntke, winner of Stage 1, finished third.
“To lose by one second on the last day is incredible, I can’t believe it happened again,” Dumoulin said. “If you’re in for a good laugh, check my results this year and last, a lot of second places. It’s pretty sad.”
Ryan Anderson of Spruce Grove, Alta. finished second in Sunday’s final stage with Ramunas Navardauskas of Lithuania third. Officials briefly had a look at the final sprint to see if Impey had impeded Anderson but let it go.
“I was getting pinched into the barrier at the end,” said Anderson, who had to swing back inside Impey. Anderson finished the top Canadian, in fifth place overall, winning $1,264.21
Dumoulin had ridden patiently for nearly 100 kilometres Sunday and then got aggressive to spark the peloton to reel in riders ahead of them and put himself back in control of the championship heading into the last of the 11-kilometre laps around Edmonton streets.
Steven Kruijswijk of the Netherlands took command of the race in the eighth of the 11 laps when he broke away on a solo run. At one point he was far enough ahead of the peloton that included Dumoulin he was a threat to the overall title. Kruijswijk was 47 seconds behind to begin the day.
In the ninth lap the peloton gobbled up the fading group that was a mixture of various team riders who weren’t working together and then reeled in Kruijswijk midway through the 10th lap.
Then it appeared to be only a race for the stage victory with Dumoulin apparently once again having a firm grasp on the overall title, still holding a nine-second lead.
Dumoulin made a strong surge to the front of a pack of 43 riders heading up the final steep climb up a 300-metre hill averaging 20 per cent gradient. That, however, appeared to sap the energy out of the leader and he was unable to join the sprint to the finish with Impey and his Orica-Greenedge teammates.
“I was just crossing my fingers,” said Dumoulin, who finished 16th. “I’m not a sprinter. It was not possible for me to get to the podium.”
Dumoulin had held the yellow jersey as overall leader since day one when he won the prologue in Calgary. He had a 14-second lead that he basically maintained through the 734 kilometres of the Tour, never letting anyone closer than eight seconds until Sunday’s final metres.
Navardauskas won the Tour sprint championship, Simon Yates of Britain was King of the Mountain winner. Dumoulin was named best young rider of the Tour. Garmin-Sharp was the top team.
The final stage wound through the streets and river valley of Edmonton, featured three steep climbs and at 124.1 kilometres was the shortest of the five stages. After two days of warm, sunny weather Sunday was cool with intermittent rain that left the streets wet and slippery. There were a number of crashes as riders lost control on corners.
Next year’s third edition of the Tour will likely be more mountainous with the prologue and first stage being hosted by Grande Prairie.