September 10/08 8:56 am - Tour of Missouri: Stage 3 interview Svein Tuft, Photos, full results

Posted by Editoress on 09/10/08
 

Tour of Missouri
Report courtesy Tour of Missouri

American Christian Vande Velde claimed dominance to the rest of the field, winning the individual time trial in Branson Wednesday at the Tour of Missouri.

Vande Velde, who finished an impressive 5th at this year's Tour de France, finished the 18-mile race against the clock in 39 minutes and 51 seconds.

"The win was actually a bit of a surprise," said Vande Velde, who recently fell off form at the Olympics less than a month ago, finishing 17th there. "This reinvigorates me, honestly. This was a big challenge. And, to beat the guy who won three world championships is big."

Australian Micheal Rogers, a three time world champion in the time trial, finished second in 40:12, followed by Canadian Svein Tuft. Rogers finished 6th and Tuft 7th at last month's Olympics in the Time Trial.

According to Vande Velde, the time trial around the hills of the resort town of Branson was one of the toughest he'd ever rode.

"This was a pivotal stage of this race," Vande Velde said. "This is a very good field. To win this race would be great for me and my sponsor (Garmin) who is right over there in Kansas."

Since his high Tour de France finish, Vande Velde (once a teammate of Lance Armstrong) he says he gets recognized and is no longer a relative unknown. He furthered that cause by taking over the leader's jersey of America's second biggest bike race by 21 seconds over Rogers.

Thursday's stage routes 105 miles from Lebanon to Rolla in Central Missouri. To honor the military, the race will route through Fort Leonard Wood.

Svein Tuft Interview
by Amy Smolens

Photos by Amy Smolens

After Svein Tuft's incredible 7th place in last month's Olympic Time Trial, the Langley, BC resident was considered one of the favourites for Stage 3 of the Tour of Missouri, the 29 kilometre Branson Time Trial. Tuft didn't disappoint, honouring his National Champion's Maple Leaf skinsuit with third place on the stage and moving into third on GC. I spoke to him before his podium appearance:

Amy Smolens: You certainly carried your Olympic form into today's stage.

Svein Tuft: Yeah, yeah, it ended up working out. It was a little doubtful (he had to sweat out the rides of ProTour riders such as George Hincapie, Roman Kreuziger and Marco Pinotti to keep his podium spot) but it felt good today.

AS: What was your strategy - did you ride your own race at your pace?

ST: I knew with the quality of guys here there are no places to conserve today and there's no real tactic other than just going as hard as you can and I definitely felt that I did that today. Again, it was another one of those situations where I finished and thought "man, I don't care where I end up, I left it all out there!"

AS: Where you ended up was behind only Christian Vande Velde, fifth in the Tour, and Michael Rogers, three-time World TT Champion. That has make you feel pretty good.

ST: Oh yeah, yeah, that's some good company.

AS: So how does team Symmetrics approach the rest of the race now?

ST: You know we'll keep chipping away. Pinner (Andrew Pinfold) is riding really well and he's moving up every day as far as the finishes go so we'll keep looking at that. I think Columbia though, with how strong they are, they're going to keep winning stages with Mark Cavendish (two stage wins already) so that's gonna be a big help for us as far as any pressure being put on us to do a lot of the work. You know, they've proven they can ride all day. I mean, yesterday was just a phenomenal showing of their power, so hats off to them and we'll do our job to keep what we have.

AS: Third in the stage, third on GC at this point - what's that like for you in what may be Symmetrics' final race?

ST: Oh yeah. For us it's kind of a bittersweet ending. You know, we're here and all our guys are in such good form and riding so well together that it really would be sad if we lose that. I've said it a bunch of times today, but it just goes to show the quality of our guys. Whatever the situation is we ride so well together and have such a good time together that I hope we have something that keeps us together.

AS: Congratulations.

ST: Thanks.