September 16/07 6:25 am - Tour of Missouri: Stage 5 photos, report and results

Posted by Editoress on 09/16/07
 

Tour of Missouri

Photos

Amy Smolens is providing our on-site interviews

Saturday's Stage 5 left Missouri's capital of Jefferson City and traveled 126.7 miles to the state's first capital, St. Charles. One of the most interesting features of the course was that a great deal of it paralleled the 225-mile Katy Trail, the longest "rails to trails" trail in North America. A fair number of recreational cyclists out for a Saturday cruise took advantage of the rare opportunity to watch the pros.

A break of 10 got away a little under an hour into the stage. There were no Canadian riders in the break. Time Trial specialist Danny Pate of Slipstream presented by Chipotle soloed from the 9 remaining riders in that group for the stage victory. Charles Dionne of Colavita-Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light won the field sprint for 10th. There were no significant changes in GC.

So I thought I'd take the opportunity to speak to one of the preeminent Canadian cyclists of all time, Alex Stieda, who in 1986 became the first North American to wear the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France. Stieda has been working here all week at the inaugural Tour of Missouri in a couple of capacities.

Amy: What sort of work are you doing here at the Tour of Missouri?

Alex: First of all I'm driving a VIP car, entertaining sponsors and dignitaries who are here for the race, helping them understand what the bike race is about. A lot of people, it's the first time for the event here so they really need some education. So I'm just helping them understand what it's all about and just sharing the passion, and I'm also doing some colour commentary on the web broadcast.

Amy: Which is for World Championship Sports Network, WCSN.com, right? Tell me about that.

Alex: Well, it's live right to the internet, so (laughs) you never know what you're gonna say sometimes and it's interesting, because there's no editing. So whatever you say is going on air which is pretty wild. It's fun, you know, I enjoy sharing the passion and explaining to the people what's going on in the race.

Amy: I do tv work, you do tv work, and it seems that the opportunity to go live on the web is a whole different outlet for bike racing.
Alex: It is and I think it's the future. I think once all the technical glitches get worked out of it and we really get a consistent streaming video up and all those things I think there's really a lot of potential for that type of coverage of bike racing.

Amy: Going back to your driving, do any of the VIPs in your car know who it is who's driving them or do you have to introduce yourself by saying, "Hi, I'm Alex Stieda, I wore the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France?"

Alex: Usually we have someone within the VIP tent introduce me to them at that point, and then while we're in the car if we have a quiet time during the race I'll tell a few stories about the old days, maybe winning the Yellow Jersey, and everyone gets out of the car pretty jazzed.

Amy: What are your impressions of how the Canadians are doing here?

Alex: Well you know, first of all, it's great to see this many Canadians in the Tour of Missouri. I mean, you have a full Canadian team with Symmetrics and then all the other Canadians sprinkled in amongst the other teams. And it has been impressive to see the Canadians up there, you know, Zach Bell, of course, and Dominique Rollin, and gosh, just a host of other great Canadians out there in the race, and the young guys really pushing hard and it's good to see them all giving their best.

Amy: Maybe we'll see the next Alex Stieda out there one of these days?

Alex: I don't know, yeah, there's a few of them out there. There's the young guy from Edmonton named Spencer Smithman who we're seeing now just coming up out of the Junior ranks so it is encouraging to see more young guys taking up road cycling as a passion.

The Tour of Missouri's final stage, Stage 6, is a circuit race in downtown St. Louis. The 7 mostly flat laps of a 10.6 mile course suits sprinters well. Zach Bell and Andrew Pinfold have each reached the second step of the podium but Symmetrics is still looking for a stage victory. Charles Dionne was outsprinted by Ivan Dominguez in Stage 4 and ended up in 4th place. And Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada's Dominique Rollin still sits in 4th overall, a mere 1 second behind David Cañada for the final podium spot. Tomorrow there are three Intermediate Sprints carrying time bonuses of 3-2-1 seconds each, and the finish awards time bonuses of 10-6-4 seconds so if the field stays together or Rollin gets in a break he could have plenty of opportunities to vault past Cañada. Rollin also is 3rd in the Sprint Classification with 21 points, behind Luciano Pagliarini and Ivan Dominguez, who each have 25 points. So tomorrow should be an exciting day for the speedsters of the peloton!