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2013 Tour of Alberta, 3rd - 8th September (2.1)

Page 3 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
There are time bonuses.

http://tourofalberta.ca/site/tour-of-alberta-preview/
After the prologue, the spot light will turn to the sprinters. With Sagan, arguably the world’s best sprinter, in the race, it may be left for others to be vying for second place. Sagan enters the Tour of Alberta as the prohibitive overall race favorite because time bonuses will be provided at the end of stages. By winning multiple stages, Sagan could make up ground on the winner of the Prologue. Sagan recently won four stages in the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado, which was a mountainous race, showing he can climb also. That’s a scary proposition for other top sprinters in the race, including Canadian Ryan Anderson and Robert Forster of United Healthcare, U.S. National Champion Fred Rodriguez, a former stage winer at the Tour of Italy, Ken Hanson of Optump presented by Kelly Benefits, Bell, Bobridge.
 
Mar 26, 2009
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Cyivel said:
Dumb Mother Canuckers.

Me and many other Albertan cyclists are excited to have a pro race here, but mostly just praying the organizers wouldn't screw up and embarrass us in front of the world. Sigh...

Actually I was at the prologue in Edmonton and already embarrassed that the city couldn't be bothered to redo the roads of the course: the area is riddled with pot-holes and rough patches that local racers get used too, but must feel very 3rd world to the pros. Sigh...

And Sagan in a cowboy hat, and thus continuing with the "redneck cowboy" stereotype this province likes perpetuating, for some reason? Sigh...
 
Mar 26, 2009
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Also, to those wondering why the wonderful Rocky Mountains aren't being used:

Yes, flooding in the Canmore region forced the cancellation of the one climbing stage there, but the other big problem is that most of the mountains are found within national and provincial parks that have regulations making it difficult to stage events like this. We DO have a small stage race put on in Banff National Park (Banff Bike Fest) that DOES use some of the nicest cycling routes in the entire province, but apparently staging the pro race was too logistically complicated for this protected area.

The other reason is that the route was selected partly/largely by which towns/regions were willing to cough up money (similar to the TdeFrance), and most towns, and almost all large towns/cities, are outside of the mountain areas in Alberta. The flat farmland does look very nice at this time of year, however...
 
Aug 5, 2012
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silverrocket said:
Me and many other Albertan cyclists are excited to have a pro race here, but mostly just praying the organizers wouldn't screw up and embarrass us in front of the world. Sigh...

Actually I was at the prologue in Edmonton and already embarrassed that the city couldn't be bothered to redo the roads of the course: the area is riddled with pot-holes and rough patches that local racers get used too, but must feel very 3rd world to the pros. Sigh...

And Sagan in a cowboy hat, and thus continuing with the "redneck cowboy" stereotype this province likes perpetuating, for some reason? Sigh...

I feel bad now :(
 
Feb 14, 2010
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tomorrow said:
then the gc results shown were very strange, do they have some different math in canada?

Yes, and the government keeps harpering on how great it is!

... but this is Alberta, and anything that isn't measured in barrels or tonnes-of-tarsand is a bit difficult for them. What I'm trying to say is that time is measured in geological units...
 
Sep 29, 2012
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The route from Jasper to Banff (and really all the way to the US border ) through the Rockies is all National Park and it is feeding time for the bears (especially the Grizzlies) so no way Parks Canada are going to give approval for this large a caravan in the Parks.

All of the cities selected will be subject to stiff cross winds ( all of Alberta is), blowing west to east, coming down out the mountains.

The stage from Strathmore to Drumheller wil be a great ride, great terrain and the climbs up out of the river valley in around Drum will be great to watch.

The stage that is at Black Diamond was not the original plan. The original plan was to ride out of High River, over the Highwood Pass at 8,300 feet and into Canmore.

Problem is with this spring's floods High River essentially got wiped out so they had to change things.

That said, I am leaving tomorrow morning. Staying in Banff and will drive over to Black Diamond. I figure if I pick my spot well I will see the group 3 times.

Should be fun.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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Oh...Ryder...:rolleyes: :p

BTXUwKYCEAAulBT.jpg:large

https://twitter.com/millarmind/status/375440067960909824
 
Jan 29, 2010
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silverrocket said:
Me and many other Albertan cyclists are excited to have a pro race here, but mostly just praying the organizers wouldn't screw up and embarrass us in front of the world. Sigh...

Actually I was at the prologue in Edmonton and already embarrassed that the city couldn't be bothered to redo the roads of the course: the area is riddled with pot-holes and rough patches that local racers get used too, but must feel very 3rd world to the pros. Sigh...

And Sagan in a cowboy hat, and thus continuing with the "redneck cowboy" stereotype this province likes perpetuating, for some reason? Sigh...

To be fair, they did repave the downhill section of the prologue explicitly for the Tour (they mentioned this in the coverage).

And if there weren't pot holes on the road, how would we know it was really Edmonton?
 
Jan 29, 2010
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Rollthedice said:
Apparently Eurosport has had enough of the broadcast problems and canceled the live coverage. I will miss Sagan.

That's too bad, but I can't say I'm surprised. The audio mixing for the prologue was terrible. Total amateur hour. I could barely make out the commentary for most of the stage, though they did seem to fix it by the end of the broadcast.

And then stage 1, what happenned? Hopefully they get their act together today.
 

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