September 9/09 0:09 am - Tour of Missouri: Stage 2

Posted by Editoress on 09/9/09
 

British speedster Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) proved to be the fastest man in the peloton for a second day, winning Stage 2, presented by Missouri Wine & Grape Board, at the 2009 Tour of Missouri. Cavendish finished in 4 hours, 16 minutes, 53 seconds. Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team) secured second and Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank) took third, reversing their podium places from yesterday.

In the general classification, Hushovd moves up from fifth to second overall, 10 seconds behind Cavendish. Haedo remains in third overall, with the same time as Hushovd.

"I had less people at the end from our team. It was a bit surprising, there were attacks from the other teams, like Kelly Benefits attacked with 5k to go. It upset the rhythm," Cavendish said about the sprint finish in Stage 2, which was his 25th victory of the season." (Today's stage) resembles central France, central-eastern, the roads you ride on in the transition stages of this year’s Tour (de France). You’re kind of laboring on these climbs; the climbs aren’t short enough that you roll up them, or long enough that your suffer up them."

A significant casualty of the day was the withdrawal of Tour of Missouri defending champion Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream). He started Stage 2 in Ste. Genevieve, but abandoned after the first few miles due to discomfort in his right hand from a hairline fracture at the base of his second metacarpal. He suffered the injury in the final 500 meters of Monday's circuit race in St. Louis.

"However painful it was to crash yesterday, riding back to the bus by myself was even more painful. The Tour of Missouri means a lot to me, my team and my sponsors. I would have loved to have been able to finish it," Vande Velde stated shortly after pulling out of the race. The 33-year-old is a native of Lemont, Ill. and has family in Missouri. He was in good form this year, having finished 8th overall at the 2009 Tour de France.

A hot pace was matched by sultry weather today as the field of 116 pro riders averaged 26.25 miles per hour over the 112.4 mile (180.9 km) route. Three riders, Americans Kiel Reijnen (Jelly Belly Cycling) and Tim Duggan (Garmin-Slipstream), and Canadian Francois Parisien (Planet Energy), broke away for 75 miles of the race. They were caught four miles from the finish.

The start host city, Ste. Genevieve, appeared to have all of its 4,500 residents, and then some, lining the streets of the 18th Century French colony community for an impressive sendoff. Riders then followed the "Route de Vin" past local vineyards and onto the endless undulating roadways and narrow bridges along the bluffs near the Mississippi River, leading up to Cape Girardeau.

The 24-year-old Cavendish retains three award jerseys - Missouri Tourism Leader's jersey, Edward Jones Sprint jersey and the 180 Energy/Icelandic Glacial Water Best Young Rider jersey. Moises Aldape (Team Type I) of Mexico will continue wearing the Michelob Ultra KOM jersey, and the Drury Hotels Most Aggressive Rider jersey was presented to Francois Parisien with Planet Energy.

"This kind of course is really my favorite kind of course. I’ve learned to race in northern France and Brittany. I’m really used to it. I really like it," said Parisien, who rides on the all-Canadian Planet Energy team. "I think Canadian cycling is going a lot better than before... It’s really important for us to show that we’re here to try to win races. We’re, maybe, underdogs, but we’re not here just for the show. The main point is to show that we’re able to do that and hopefully win a race."

Tour of Missouri Press release

Interviews by Amy Smolens

With Martin Gilbert having shown the colours of Planet Energy as the top-placed non-ProTour rider with a 5th place in Stage 1, I figured Steve Bauer would have his guys primed for another excellent performance in Stage 2. Since Team Columbia no doubt would be drilling it on the front to ensure another field sprint for Mark Cavendish, I thought I'd have a pre-race word with Planet Energy's other Quebecois sprinter, Keven Lacombe

Pre-race, Keven Lacombe - Planet Energy

Amy Smolens: Talk about how you guys played the sprint yesterday and ended up with Martin Gilbert's 5th place.

Keven Lacombe I think at the beginning of the race we knew it would be a field sprint so we just played the game and tried to be as much as possible behind Cavendish, there was a big fight to be there so we just tried to take our place. But at the end we got screwed up a little bit, we lost each other, but Martin was the fresher guy there and we did 5th so it's good. But sure, we want to win a stage so we're going to try to do better!

AS: This is your first year racing under Steve Bauer. What kind of a director is he?

KL: Steve is a really good team director, behind in the car he's always giving us advice about the race and I think we did really good results this year and this team starts to grow and it's really good for the future.

AS: What types of advice does he give you?

KL: He's going to try to give us as much information as possible and sometimes he says the best information but sometimes it's coming down to us, if we do the job or not. But he's giving as much support as possible and we're just going to try to do better.

AS: Thanks, good luck.

KL: Thanks.


Yes, Bauer did have his guys ready for action... in addition to Gilbert's second straight 5th place, this time François Parisien showed that the final team invited to the Tour of Missouri was well worthy of the invitation. The 2005 National Road Race Champion attacked after the day's second KOM and was out on a break for more than 130 kilometres, earning himself the Drury Hotels Most Aggressive Rider jersey. As François was riding to the press conference after the podium presentation I was able to catch up with him for a few minutes. And I do mean that literally - I ran alongside him and he was kind enough to softpedal for me while he answered a few questions:

Post-race, François Parisien - Planet Energy, Drury Hotels Most Aggressive Rider

Amy Smolens: Tell me about how the break formed and if you thought it was the right move to stick.

François Parisien: I'm the one who attacked. I think racing all those years in Europe I can sense it, I feel it when it is the time to go. When I attacked and I turned around and saw the gap I knew it was the right one. I turned around and was by myself and then I saw Tim Duggan coming up and I sat up and waited for him. Then we worked together until the end, and 15k to go I tried to go solo, but it didn't really work. So I was going to help my teammates on the leadout afterward as much as I could but I flatted with 6k to go.

AS: With about 15 kilometres to go you attacked Duggan and then for the next 10 minutes you two just attacked each other constantly.

FP: Yeah, I really wanted to go solo as far as I could but it's too bad it didn't work - you know, that's racing.

AS: Martin has finished 5th twice and you initiated today's break and are now wearing the Most Aggressive Rider jersey. Since Planet Energy was the final team invited to the Tour of Missouri how important is your showing here with this strong European field?

FP: Yeah, I think we're showing that we're not here only to participate, that we're here to win races. This team's going to grow up, this team's going to go Europe and I'm pretty proud to be part of it.

AS: What are you learning from a legend like Steve Bauer?

FP: You learn a lot, you know? When he tells you that you gotta go, well, you gotta go (big laugh!!) This guy knows every little trick of cycling.

AS: What was he telling you while you were in the break?

FP: We just rolled it pretty consistently the whole time and we made sure that we still had some juice left for the last 30k and tried to accelerate the last 30k and that's what we did!

AS: Great job, thanks.

FP:Thanks!