September 7/09 23:04 pm - Tour of Missouri: Stage 1

Posted by Editoress on 09/7/09
 

Stage 1 results and post race interviews by Amy Smolens

British sprinter Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) thrilled the huge Labor Day crowds with a sprint victory at Stage One of the Tour of Missouri today. He outdueled Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank) of Argentina, who finished second, and Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team) of Norway, who finished third, for the first Missouri Tourism Leader's Jersey of the week.

"Like I said, I can't do it alone. I have the best team around me," Cavendish said about his 24th career victory today. With the win, he also receives a new Buell 1125R motorcycle, courtesy of Gateway Harley-Davidson. "I could see the motorbike glistening so it was like a carrot on a string."

A field of 118 professional riders representing 23 countries started the 75-mile (120.7-kilometer) course rode under sunny skies, which radiated off the famous Gateway Arch just beyond the start/finish area along Market and 7th streets in downtown St. Louis. The circuit race, 10 laps of 7.5-miles each, also passed other St. Louis landmarks, including the Anheuser-Busch InBev Brewery, Busch Stadium and Lafayette Park. It was a stage that was predicted to be ruled by the top sprinters, and three of the best ended the day on the podium.

"To win a stage would be nice, but with Cavendish it will be hard. There has to be a way," added Haedo after the race.

Most of the race was led by a breakaway threesome, Moises Aldape (Team Type 1) of Mexico, Tomas Vaitkus (Astana) of Lithuania, and Chris Anker Sorensen (Team Saxo Bank) of Denmark, who led for eight laps. They were caught with about 12 miles to go by a charging peloton. And a crash with 500 meters to go caught defending champion Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream) in the pileup, resulting in a hairline fracture in his second metacarpal of his right hand.

“It could have been a lot worse. Racing is going to be painful but I’m the defending champion and continuing is important to me and my team. I’ll be at the start tomorrow,” Vande Velde said after having x-rays made of his hand.

In addition to the Missouri Tourism Leader's jersey, Cavendish also captures the Edward Jones Sprint jersey as well as leads in the points classification for the 180 Energy/Icelandic Glacial Water Best Young Rider jersey. His Sprint jersey will be worn by in Stage 2 by Aldape, who was second in the sprint points. The Most Aggressive Rider jersey will then be worn tomorrow by Vaitkus.

"I'm so proud of the outpouring of support today. Are you aware that there's a race in Spain this week? But the top riders in the world are here," said Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder to the thousands of fans at the awards presentation following the stage. "Tomorrow we continue for the first time in the southeast corner (of the state) from Ste. Genevieve to Cape Girardeau, 112 miles of undulating Missouri hills. I hope you will join us, and all week."

For the first time since its inaugural year in 2007, the 2009 Tour will route east to west, starting in St. Louis and finishing in Kansas City. The past two years, the race routed west to east, starting in Kansas City and finishing in St. Louis. There will be two circuit races (St. Louis, Kansas City), one individual time trial (Sedalia), and four point to point road races (Ste. Genevieve to Cape Girardeau; Farmington to Rolla; St. James to Jefferson City; Chillicothe to St. Joseph). The overall mileage for the course is 612 miles.

Tour of Missouri press release

Post-race - Michael Barry - Team Columbia, team of stage winner Mark Cavendish

Amy Smolens: No matter who's a part of the Columbia train you guys have it dialed for the Mark Cavendish victory, don't you?

Michael Barry: Yeah, for sure. When you have a sprinter like Mark or (Andre) Greipel or (Greg) Henderson they have confidence in us, we have confidence in them and they deliver so the team has figured out how to win and we just keep doing it. There's a snowball effect to it and the more we win the more confident we get so it gets easier.

AS: And there seem to be interchangeable parts whether it's Mark Renshaw, Bernhard Eisel or anyone else, you all know just what to do.

MB: Yeah, exactly. Everybody has raced selflessly for one objective and that makes a huge difference to the success of the team.

AS: The Team Columbia lineup for 2010 was announced today and I didn't see your name on the list. Is there a particular reason for that and do you know where you'll be riding next season? *

MB: I do, yeah. It'll be announced in the next few days. I've had a great couple of years with Columbia and I have some new opportunities on another team. I've decided it was time to change and I'm looking forward to the new opportunities - just a new environment, new challenges - I'm really excited about it, actually!

AS: So you'll tell me about it after Stage 3 then?

MB: Ummm, maybe, yeah (laughs!)

AS: Thanks a lot.

MB: You're welcome.

Post-race, Martin Gilbert- Planet Energy, 5th place on stage

Amy Smolens: You've been on the North and South American circuits all year with Planet Energy. What's it like to finally have the opportunity to mix it up against the big guys from the ProTour like Mark Cavendish and Thor Hushovd?

Martin Gilbert: I think it's a good thing. We waited and we worked for this race all year, so now we have a chance to be in this Tour against the big guys so we want to take our chance and try to beat them here while we have the chance.

AS: And is it a good situation where you can sit and wait when the break is away because you know that Team Columbia is going to do the work to chase it down for Cavendish?

MG: Yeah, I think we have to be intelligent. Now today we know that Cavendish is probably the fastest guy right now so we know that if Columbia wants to get the jersey, their best chance is to go for the sprints. So we took our chances - Keven (Lacombe) feels good, the new rookie feels good, Guillaume (Boivin,) and we had a lot of power with all the other guys for the sprint. I think we knew it would finish in a sprint so we waited for it, we tried to fight it out in the hope we can do good and I think we did good. We want to do better but we still have a few days.

AS: What does it feel like to have come in ahead of everyone except three ProTour riders - Cavendish, Juan Jose Haedo and Hushovd?

MG: Oh I think it's good! I think we want to win, I'm sure we can beat them so we are here for that. We try hard and we couldn't beat the first three guys but I think we can do it and we'll try as hard as we can to beat them in the next couple of days.

AS: Thanks, good luck!

MG: Thanks!


* The SKY [team] hasn't announced their roster but they will have five or six of our riders," said Stapleton, who confirmed other riders set to leave his team include Thomas Lovkvist, Michael Barry and Greg Henderson. All three are understood to be heading for SKY, though Mark Cavendish, the star of the Columbia team, is staying with the squad for 2010. Cavendish last night secured the 50th win of his career at the Tour of Missouri in St Louis.