Reigning champ to miss Tour of Alberta with injury

Some familiar cycling faces will return to central Alberta this year, just not 2016’s champion.

The 2017 ATB Tour of Alberta will field 12 teams of eight riders for the Sept. 1-4 event, and while the likes of Tom Jelte-Slagter, third-place finisher from the 2015 edition, and Nigel Ellsay, who finished seventh last year, are slated to attend, defending champion Robin Carpenter will not.

The Holowesko-Citadel team member crashed at the Tour of Utah earlier this month and won’t compete in Alberta as a result.

Holowesko-Citadel won’t lack in star power, however. T.J. Eisenhart, who was a one-day leader at the Colorado Classic this year, will compete for the American team, along with John Murphy, a stage winner at both the 2017 Tour of Utah and Colorado Classic, Ty Magner, a stage winner and one-day leader of the 2017 Tour of Utah, and Andzs Flaksis, the winner of the 2017 Tour de Beauce, Canada’s second biggest stage race.

Other successful cyclists will make the trip north, including a strong Cannondale-Drapac team that will include Nathan Brown, a two-day KOM jersey bearer from this year’s Tour de France, Lawson Craddock, who finished third in the 2015 Tour of California, Alex Howes, recent third-place finisher in the Colorado Classic; and JelteSlagter, the third-place finisher in the 2015 Tour of Alberta and winner of the stage in Jasper National Park, which will serve as Stage 1 of this year’s race.

The 2017 Tour starts in Jasper then moves to the Edmonton area for the remaining three stages. Spruce Grove will be the hub community for Stage 2 on Sept. 2, while Edmonton hosts the final two stages Sept. 3 and 4.

Canada’s top three teams will be competing with their top riders.

Silber Pro Cycling will feature Pier-Andre Cote, third-place finisher at the Canadian National Championships this year; former national champion Ryan Roth, and rising star Ellsay.

H&R Block Pro Cycling is led by upstart Travis Samuel, fifth overall in Canada’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay, while Garneau-Quebecor will be led by Bruno Langlois, the 2016 Canadian national champion.

Canadian Rob Britton, the winner of the 2017 Tour of Utah, will lead Rally Racing, whose cyclists include reigning Canadian national champion Matteo Dal-Cin as well as Colin Joyce, who was a two-day leader of last year’s Tour of Alberta, and Evan Huffman, who won a stage last year in Alberta. Huffman won two stages at this year’s Tour of California, a race that featured most of this year’s Tour de France teams.