Tour of Missouri: Stage 4 - Michael Barry Takes Solo Stage Win, Vande Velde Retains Overall Lead

by optic | September 11, 2008 at 12:32 pm

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Canadian Michael Barry rode away from his three breakaway companions in the final miles of the race and held on for a solo victory in Stage 4 of the Tour of MIssouri. This is Barry's first victory since a stage win in the 2005 Tour of Austria. His escape was a just reward for his work as a domestique over the past few years, and coming off of a 2007 season marked by injuries he seems to have kept the form which put him in the top 10 at the Beijing Olympics road race. His breakaway was undoubtebly helped by the fact that he had three Team Columbia team-mates in the chasing group, including last year's winner George Hincapie and current #2 overall Michael Rogers.

Team Columbia’s Michael Barry won stage 4 of the Tour of Missouri by attacking his three breakaway companions and riding alone the last nine miles into Rolla. Race leader Christian Vande Velde was put under pressure as the race split over a climb 30 miles from the finish, but with the help of Garmin-Chipotle teammate Tom Danielson, he finished safely in a small group of about 16 to retain the yellow jersey.

(...) BMC’s Jeff Louder attacked, and brought with him Barry, Andy Bajadali (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) and Richard Faltus (Sparkasse).
The four rode together well for a few miles, but when Barry sensed the group was getting sluggish, he attacked. It came back together for a little while, but with about 13 miles to go, Barry and Louder went clear of Bajadali and Faltus.

Then, with nine miles to go, Barry took off on his own and never looked back. His win marked Columbia’s third scalp of the Tour of Missouri.

At day’s end, the provisional GC looked like this:

1.Christian Vande Velde (Garmin), race leader
2.Michael Rogers (Columbia), at 21 seconds
3. Svein Tuft (Symmetrics), at 44 seconds
4. George Hincapie (Columbia), at 1:03
5. Tom Danielson (Garmin), at 1:24
6. Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas), at 1:33
7. Tom Zirbel (Bissell), at 2:02
8. Jeff Louder (BMC), at 2:25
9. Dominique Rollin (Toyota), at 2:39
10. Dirk Muller (Sparkasse), at 3:03