The second Tour of Alberta six-stage cycling race will crown a new champion.
Twenty-four-year-old Australian Rohan Dennis, who seized control of the inaugural Tour in the Strathmore-to-Drumheller stage a year ago, won’t be back to defend his title, having switched teams from Garmin-Sharp to BMC.
BMC will not be competing in Alberta from Sept. 2nd to 7th.
Another notable absentee is a three-stage winner from a year ago, Peter Sagan of Slovakia. He was also the over-all Sprint jersey winner.
Not that the 2014 lineup is short on individual firepower, however.
A 120-man field will feature two superb Dutch riders prominent in this year’s Tour de France – Bauke Mollema of Belkin Pro Cycling, 10th at the world’s most famous cycling event, and Steven Kruiswijlk, the 15th-best finisher in Paris this year.
Other prominent competitors include Tour de France stage winner Ramunas Navardauskas of Lithuania, recent Tour of Utah champion Tom Danielson of the U.S., two-time Paris-Nice stage winner Tom-Jelte Slagter and two-time Tour of Italy stage winner Matthew Goss, an Australian.
Among the 24 homegrown athletes slated to race is Calgarian Ryan Anderson of Team OptumHealth, the top-placed Canadian rider a year ago at this event.
This year’s Tour flip-flops opening and closing venues from 2013, beginning with the Prologue at Canada Olympic Park and ending in downtown Edmonton.
