Irish rider Sam Bennett, second from right, hits the front of the Bora-Argon 18 line-up in the team time trial in Canada.
Ahead of the first opportunity for a sprinter's stage win at the Tour of Alberta today, Thursday, Sam Bennett's Bora-Argon 18 team has limited its losses in the opening team time trial.
The 19.6km team test in Grande Prairie got the six-day UCI 2.1 event underway late last night Irish time, with Bennett's German-based ProContinental team rounding out the stage in 4th place.
Bennett and his colleagues relinquished 23 seconds to Trek Factory Racing and Orica-GreenEDGE who finished 1st and 2nd respectively on the same time.
Another WorldTour team, Katusha came home in 3rd place just eight seconds down, with Bora-Argon 18 next of the 15 squads in the race.
The result means Bennett is in 17th place overall ahead of his first real chance to win a stage today.
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The 171.6km stage 2 in the county of Grande Prairie starts and finishes in Evergreen Park.
While mostly flat, the final 40km is made up of two loops of a 20km circuit with a 1.5km climb each lap. The finish is 8km from the top of the second passage of the climb.
If the Carrick man wants to win he will need to get past Australian Orica-GreenEDGE rider Michael Matthews, who this year has taken wins at Tour of Switzerland, Pais Vasco, Paris-Nice and two stages at the Giro.
Dutch rider Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) is leading the race by virtue of being first across the line of his team in the TTT.
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However, with Matthews a member of the Orica-GreenEDGE team that finished 2nd on the same time, the young Australian would take the race lead if he were to win today's stage.
It means his team will be going all out to make that possible, leaving Bennett with a job to do if he is to claim his latest victory in what has been a really strong season so far.
Sept 2nd to 7th: Tour of Alberta (UCI 2.1)
Stage 1: Grande Prairie, 19.6km TTT
1 Trek Factory Racing 0:22:57
2 Orica GreenEdge
3 Team Katusha 0:00:08
4 Bora-Argon 18 0:00:23
5 Team Giant - Alpecin 0:00:25
6 Hincapie Racing Team 0:00:26
7 Team Cannondale - Garmin 0:00:30
8 Drapac Professional Cycling 0:00:40
9 Silber Pro Cycling 0:00:41
10 Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies 0:00:44
11 Lupus Racing Team
12 Axeon Cycling Team 0:00:59
13 Team SmartStop 0:01:04
14 Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:01:21
15 H&R Block Pro Cycling 0:01:56
General Classification
1 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing 0:22:57
2 Jesse Sergent (NZl) Trek Factory Racing
3 Hayden Roulston (NZl) Trek Factory Racing
4 Marco Coledan (Ita) Trek Factory Racing
5 Matthew Busche (USA) Trek Factory Racing
6 Christian Meier (Can) Orica GreenEdge
7 Svein Tuft (Can) Orica GreenEdge
8 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica GreenEdge
9 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica GreenEdge
10 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Orica GreenEdge
11 Aleksei Tcatevich (Rus) Team Katusha 0:00:08
12 Sergey Lagutin (Rus) Team Katusha
13 Simon Špilak (Slo) Team Katusha
14 Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Rus) Team Katusha
15 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha
16 Christoph Pfingsten (Ger) Bora-Argon 18 0:00:23
17 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18
18 Paul Voss (Ger) Bora-Argon 18
19 Jan Barta (Cze) Bora-Argon 18
20 Scott Thwaites (GBr) Bora-Argon 18
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