Alex Rasmussen took his first win of the season today at the TD Bank International Cycling Championship in Philadelphia. With a long sprint through the circuit finish of a 251 kilometer race, Rasmussen showed outstanding resilience after the Giro d'Italia by pulling ahead of the pre-race favorites for the win of this iconic one-day race.

"With only five riders to work with, we had to take control right from the start," said sport director Allan Peiper, "There were six riders out front in the beginning, and Caleb [Fairly] and Patrick [Gretsch] did a great job interchanging and controlling the pack."

"There was a maximum lead of nine and a half minutes, and Fairly and Gretsch slowly reeled them in."

In the last thirty kilometers, there was a break of about a minute that held until the last lap of the race circuit when HTC-Highroad pulled them back.

"Leigh Howard's derailleur failed at Lemon hill with three kilometers to go," says Peiper, "But we had maintained a dominant presence in the peloton and the guys were able to keep the group together."

"Rasmussen was on point, and was able to make a big sprint from a ways back to take the win."

This is Alex Rasmussen's first win for the HTC-Highroad Sprint team, and the team's second win of the day after Michael Albasini's victory in GP Kanton Aargau.