Team HTC-HighRoad's Alex Rasmussen (Denmark) took his first win of the season today at the 2011 TD Bank Philadelphia International Pro Cycling Championship in Philadelphia.

In a long sprint through the circuit finish of a 254 kilometer and 6 hour race, Rasmussen showed outstanding resilience after returning from the Giro d'Italia by pulling ahead of the pre-race favorites for the win of this iconic American one-day race.

"With only five riders to work with, we had to take control right from the start," Team HTC-HighRoad sports director Allan Peiper told Roadcycling.com and our mobile sister site Roadcycling.mobi and continued "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 the HTC-Highroad team worked hard to pull them back. Race winner Rasmussen flatted late in the race and needed a wheel change, but still managed to work his way back to the main pack and the eventual race win.

According to Peiper "Leigh Howard's derailleur failed at Lemon hill with three kilometers to go. 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 Team HTC-HighRoad.