Cycling: Vande Velde wins 2008 Tour of Missouri

by optic | September 14, 2008 at 06:14 pm

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The Pro Tour teams put on a show in MIssouri this week, dominating the races and the final classification. In the end the lead Christian Vande Velde put up in the stage 3 time trial was enough to hold off both Michael Rogers (2nd) and last year's winner George Hincapie (4th) of Team Columbia. Sandwiched in between was the best of the continental team finishers, Svein Tuft of the Symmetrics Cycling Team.

In a blustery, weather-shortened final stage of the Tour of Missouri, Italian Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) surprised Columbia's Mark Cavendish and Garmin-Chipotle's Tyler Farrar to win in St. Louis, as Garmin's Christian Vande Velde secured the overall win in a hotly contested GC battle.

Chicchi's stage win, in sight of the city's iconic Gateway Arch, concluded a week-long rivalry between America's biggest pro teams — indeed it was one of only two stages of this year's edition of the "Toura Missoura" that was not won by either Garmin or Columbia.

The final tally: Four stage wins by Columbia (three for Cavendish and one for Michael Barry), one for Garmin (Vande Velde's decisive stage 3 time trial win), one by Rabobank (Boy Van Poppel took stage 5) and one for Liquigas. Cavendish also took the points jersey and Columbia won the team GC competition.

Winner: Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) won the field sprint in 1:57:06 (28.8 mph/46.4 kmh.
Leader: Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) won his first Tour of Missouri, finishing safely in the front field.
Points: Mark Cavendish (Columbia)
Team GC: Team Columbia
KOM: Dominque Rollin (Toyota-United)
Best Young Rider: Roman Kreuzinger (Liquigas)
Most Aggressive Rider: Jeff Louder (BMC)
Peloton: 93 riders finished, down from the 116 that started the race on Sept. 8