THE TEAMS IN THE TOUR
WorldTour, pro continental and continental teams will all be competing for honours in the inaugural Tour of Alberta. Because the race has a uci ranking of 2.1, no more than half of the teams invited can be WorldTour level. The remainder of the teams are made up of lower-level professional outfits. A national team is also permitted to race. The Tour’s plan is to have 15 teams of eight riders each for a total of 120 competitors.
In May, one of the first teams to be announced for the Tour of Alberta was Garmin-Sharp. The U. S.- based WorldTour team has a notable Canadian in its roaster. “Ryder Hesjedal said he was going to commit to the race,” said Steven G. Brunner, president of kom Sports Marketing, the organization behind communications for the event. " I think Garmin-Sharp will try to build a squad around him, probably with some of the young Americans on the team, like Peter Stetina and Caleb Fairly. But it's not out of the question that you’d see guys like Christian Vande Velde or Tom Danielson. Then you have Tyler Farrar who probably has a pretty good shot in that race to take one of the stages. He may be looking at that race for preparation for the worlds.”
A WorldTour team with double the Canadian content is Orica- GreenEdge. Both Svein Tuft and Christian Meier have strong ties to neighbouring B.C., and would be natural choices for the Australian team’s roster. Argos-Shimano – the team of François Parisien, who won the fifth stage of this year’s Volta a Catalunya – is sending a team. Cannondale has Guillaume Boivin, who won the bunch sprint at the end of the second stage of the Tour de Beauce and yellow for a day. Canuckfree ProTeams in the race include bmc Racing Team and Team Belkin (formerly Blanco). Might bmc bring Philippe Gilbert, Thor Hushovd, Taylor Phinney or Tejay van Garderen? Belkin’s Robert Gesink seems to do quite well in North America: he’s been on the podium three times in the Quebec Grand Prix races, including first in the inaugural Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. He also won the Tour of California in 2012.
Teams at the pro continental and continental levels also have a few Canadians for the race. China’s Champion System has 2012’s national road champion, Ryan Roth. “I think they’ll try to set him up as well as possible either for a stage win or for a high GC,” said Brunner. Zach Bell, the current national road champion, is also on Champion System. This year he’s been doing a good job of getting into the right breakaways. He won Stage 4 of the Tour de Taiwan in March and Stage 6 of the Tour de Korea in June out of groups that stayed away from the peloton. He employed similar tactics at this year’s national road race, too.
The team with the most maple syrup running through its veins is Garneau- Quebecor. Riders from the Canadian continental team who’ve been animating races this season include Bruno Langlois, Rémi Pelletier- Roy and Michael Woods. The North Carolina-based SmartStop presented by Mountain Khakis is bringing its newly minted stagiaire from Alberta, Kris Dahl. Ben Chaddock, the 2012 national criterium champion, will very likely be in the mix, too. Sebastian Salas, Marsh Cooper and Ryan Anderson ride for Optum Pro Cycling presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies, who will also be sending a squad.