Garmin Sharp's Rohan Dennis won the third stage of the Tour Of Alberta.
A group of eighteen had got away but that dropped to six including Robert Gesink who took the climb with 38.7km to go and Garmin Sharp's Rohan Dennis won the sprint as the crosswinds started to take effect.
Brent Bookwalker of BMC, Patrick Gretch of Argos Shimano, Steve Morabito of BMC, Robert Gesink of Belkin, Damiano Caruso of Cannondale and Rohan Dennis of Garmin-Sharp, who was the virtual leader on the road, were away. They were twenty seconds ahead of the chasing group but ten minutes ahead of the peloton which included race leader Peter Sagan.
With six kilometres to go, Robert Gesink took the second King Of The Mountains climb, which looked enough to give him the jersey ahead of his team-mate Tom Slagter.
The games started with five kilometres to go. Steve Morabito went first then Damiano Caruso of Cannondale. The attacks were short-lived.
With 300 metres to go, Bookwalter and Rohan Dennis went for the sprint and Dennis in white got down the right and won in 3.55.31. Second was Bookwalter, third was Caruso with Gretsch fourth, Gesink fifth and Morabito sixth.
The peloton ambled in
Dennis, who now leads the race ahead of Bookwalter said: "There was a bit of a worry of Brent and Patrick and I really had to work to stay away. it is the hardest stage so far and the crosswind split us to bits and we pretty much time-trialed for 160k. I came here for the prologue and was going to see how it went. It was never an intention but it is great to wear the yellow jersey."