Japanese university students Toyohiro Oka (Trek-Marco Polo Cycling) and Yuya Sasaki (Team Nippon-Colnago), from Kyoto Sangyo University, decided to take a few weeks off, rent a car and race in California. In preparation for their big collegiate national road race, they thought that racing in the States would put an edge on their training and gain invaluable experience. The American peloton is unlike any peloton in Japan.

“Racing in Japan is very different. The standard mode is for a breakaway to go,” commented Oka, who is a senior majoring in business administration. “The winner is always from this initial break. There is very little strategy involved. I wanted to come here to learn how the American riders race, like attacking. I wanted to see the Americans race and ride in an American race. My hope is to take back the attacking race form to Japan and use it in races there. I really do like how the riders attack the peloton.”

 Toyohiro Oka (Trek-Marco Polo Cycling)

“I also like the way the teams work together here,” continued Oka. “There is not much in team strategy in the Japanese collegiate ranks. Watching the teams ride was interesting.”

“The criteriums have been fun but are very fast. The pace does not fall and remains fast.” Oka won the Suisun Harbor Criterium in Suisun City, CA. Oka placed first in the Miyata Cycle Road Race U23 and placed 12^th in the Japan National Road race U23 in Japan this year.

 Tony Cruz (BMC) and Yuya Sasaki (Team Nippon-Colnago),

“I came here because there is a very important collegiate race at the end of the summer, stated Saski, a senior studying law. “I want to win that race and came here to train. I want to be able race well. I came to learn how to race fast. I am learning how attacking the peloton and pacing can affect a race.”

“I hope to be a professional cyclist one day and plan on continuing my training even after graduatiion,” declared Sasaki. “Since I have been here I have grown to admire Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics)  and I remain a Pantani fan.”

While racing in California, Saski placed 7^th at the Winters Road Race in Winters, CA and placed 7^th at the University Road Race in Santa Cruz, CA. Saski won the South Japan Road race and came in 7^th at the Japan National Championship Road Race this year.

Sasaki riding in the University Road peloton. 

Many thanks to Yukie Nakamura (Kenda Tires) and her husband Masayoshi (Mark) Nakamura for setting up the meeting with Oka and Sasaki. Mr. Nakamura would like to make this an annual program for young Japanese collegiate riders to gain invaluable experience riding in the American peloton. Hopefully we will see more young Japanese riders enjoy their summer vacation competing in the California Cup series next year.

All pictures copyright Stephanie Gutowski

Kids were out in force at the start where each class visited their adopted team.

Steven Cozza (Garmin-Chiptole)
“It [the moustache] started to go out of style, I was tired of eating hair with my food. Plus that Italian racer started growing his and kind of ruined it, I had to share it off.”

“It’s going to be a battle, we’re going to be riding in the front, it’s going to be really painful but I think we’re strong enough and we can do it. ”

George Hincapie (Columbia) puts in an attack in the first kilometers

Garmin-Chipotle team leading the field at the second KOM

Christan Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle)

“I was concerned all day. It was a brutally hard day and they threw everything at us, the team did a great job. There was no respite at all today. we want just trying to control it as much as we can. The strategy is to keep control of the race and not let anybody go.”

Dominique Rollin (Toyota-United), KOM
” tomorrow there’s only one KOM in the stage and I have a good enough lead to not worry about those points and just maybe hope for a little breakaway to take over those points and we can relax and wait for the final in the sprint. I think we build enough lead on the points scale so this way we can just keep on going for our ultimate goal, a stage win in this year’s edition.”

Mike Barry (Columbia), stage winner and Most Agressive
Our strategy today was to make the race as hard as possible for Garmin. We have a couple of guys that are very close in the classification and we’d like to wrestle it away from Christian. We have to make the race as hard as possible, to isolate him and we managed to do that towards the end of the race and we kept attacking until the end and I found myself in position to go for the stage win. The team rode really well today and really it could have been any of the guys with the opportunity to go for the victory, it just happened to be me to attack, I attacked at the right time and got away.

Eric Baumann (Sparkasse), second on stage

“A really tough stage, all the time up and down, very fast. My team did a really good job, we were able to put guys in the big breakaway and at the end, only one guy was stronger than us. For us, it’s okay second place.”

“We do all the time in Europe the races, then we had a chance to come over here and we want to keep this chance so we can come in the nest years with these nice tours. I am only here for bikes, baby clothes and gap for my kids (laughs). ”

All photos copyright Lyne Lamoureux

Canadian Michael Barry of Team Columbia broke away from a lead group of 20 riders, less than 10 miles before the final circuits and held on to capture Stage Four of the 2008 Tour of Missouri. Berry finished 46 seconds ahead Eric Baumann of Sparkasse, who edged out third place finisher Danilo Wyss of the BMC Racing Team.

Christian Vande Velde’s (Garmin-Chipotle) fourth place finish allowed him to retain Missouri Tourism Leader’s jersey going into Stage Five with an 18-second lead over Michael Rogers of Team Columbia in the General Classification standings. Svein Tuft of Symetrics remains in third place. 2007 Tour of Missouri winner George Hincapie (Team Columbia) remains in fourth place, with Vande Velde’s teammate Tom Danielson in fifth place.

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Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle), stage winner and yellow jersey
“It’s always great to have time splits and know that you are going well. I always start off quite slow and Dave [Zabriskie] goes quite fast. To know that I was within a couple seconds of him was nice to know, then I had Mick behind me which is probably the best… I thought he was going to catch me actually, it’s great motivation for sure.”

Michael Rodgers (Columbia), second in stage
“That was one of the reason that I came to this race was to do this time trial in preparation for the World Championships later on this month in Italy. I think it was the hardest time trial I’ve done this year, course wise, there are certainly some good riders and to finish second to especially to Christian is a positive thing.: said Rodgers

Svein Tuft (Symmetrics), third in stage
“I think Beijing gave me a lot of confidence as a rider, I did everything as far as preparation that I could coming into it and it really gave me a ton of confidence as far as being a time trialist and knowing what I could do. I could see there that I could compete with some of the best guys in the world and that’s really help me coming into this race, and being like ‘man you should not mess around at all, just do what you know you need to do’ ” .

Sprinter Mark Cavendish (Columbia) lost the yellow jersey

Points jersey Andy Guptill (Colavita/Sutter Home); Dominique Rollin (Toyota-United) enjoys his beer received every time he gets the KOM jersey which is every day so far.

All photos copyright Lyne Lamoureux

Stage 12 Results
1 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick Step – 4.42.44
2 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner – 0.01
3 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre
4 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Lampre
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana
6 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi – 0.04
7 Oliver Zaugg (Swi) Gerolsteiner
8 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC – Saxo Bank
9 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana
10 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi

General classification after stage 12
1 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi – 45.48.33
2 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana – 0.11
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana – 0.29
4 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC – Saxo Bank – 1.38
5 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia – 2.10
6 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi – 2.23
7 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank – 3.22
8 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner – 3.40
9 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre – 4.09
10 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne – 4.10

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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.”

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Overall race leader Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia gained his second consecutive stage victory, finishing a bike-length ahead of the bunched peloton to capture stage two of the Tour of Missouri in Springfield, Mo. Cavendish, who won four stages at the 2008 Tour de France, was followed to the line by Eric Baumann of Sparkasse and team Liquigas’ Francesco Chicch.

After today’s action, Cavendish stretched his lead in the General Classification to 12 seconds over Chicchi, whose Stage Two performance moved him to second place in the G.C. while Baumann rounds out the top three. Notable American riders in the G.C. top 25 after Stage Two include George Hincapie (Team Columbia) in 18th place and Christian Vande Velde in 24th place.

Cavendish’s teammates positioned him for victory by controlling the peloton for the entire race and ensuring that an early breakaway group of five riders didn’t gained too much time on the field. The breakaway was caught just before reaching the final circuits in Springfield, then Team Columbia jousted with riders from Sparkasse and Garmin-Chipotle to give Cavendish the position he needed coming into the final straightaway.

“It was a case of keeping our position until the last two kilometers and then hitting out,” said Cavendish of his team’s strategy in the race’s final moments. “The pace was so high that I was dropped off at 150 meters to go. Nothing else to do but win really, it was as simple as that. ”

Sunny skies and a large group cheering fans greeted riders as they embarked from Clinton, Mo. and its historic downtown square. The longest stage of the Tour provided a battleground for elite sprinters with two Edward Jones Sprint competitions (Stockton and Willard.) After a rapid fire series of break attempts, a five-man breakaway group formed at the 20-mile mark of the race. Mike Sayers (BMC Racing), Andy Guptill (Colavita/Sutter Home), Andreas Schillinger (Sparkasse), Reid Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast) and Andrew Randell (Symmetrics) hit off through the picturesque farmland and woodland areas of southwestern Missouri. Their group’s advantage over the field hovered around three minutes for most of the race before disintegrating prior to the finishing circuits in Springfield.

For Guptill’s efforts in today’s break, he was awarded the Drury Hotels Aggressive Rider Jersey. Cavendish will continue to wear the Missouri Tourism Leader’s jersey. He is also Edward Jones Sprint Leader and THF Realty Best Young Rider points leader. The latter two jerseys will be worn tomorrow by the riders holding second place in the respective competitions, with Chicchi in the sprint jersey and Kohler (BMC) donning the best young rider. Today’s race didn’t offer riders an opportunity to earn Michelob Ultra King of the Mountain points, leaving Dominique Rollin of Toyota United Pro Cycling as the jersey wearer going into stage 3.

While Stage Two’s course encompasses a sparsely populated region of Missouri, fans from towns along the route came out in large numbers, including many young students given the day off to the experience the race and cheer the riders on.

“You see a town sign that says ‘population 95’, a very small town but it seems like the entire town will be out there, “ said Guptill. “It’s never really a dull moment; there is always some sort of motivation and people always yelling out there.”

Stage Three, the Individual Time Trial (ITT), starts in Branson, Mo. at 11:00 a.m. The starting order for the (ITT) follows in the reverse order of the G.C. standings with each rider taking off from the start ramp in one minute intervals. The final ten riders will leave in two minute intervals. The ITT course, which was used during the 2007 Tour of Missouri, starts at the Landing and challenges riders with three climbs, including a 2.5 mile trek to Shepherd of the Hills Homestead and Outdoor Center, which was featured in John Wayne’s movie of the same title.

Team Columbia’s Mark Cavendish won his second bunch sprint at the Tour of Missouri today in Springfield. German Eric Baumann (Sparkasse) was second and Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) was third, again.

Ex-teammates and friends David Zabriskie (Garmin-Chipotle) and George Hincapie (Columbia)

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Cervélo TestTeam are very pleased to announce the following rider signings to the new Cervélo TestTeam.

Carlos Sastre

“We are very proud and pleased to confirm that Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre has signed to ride for Cervélo TestTeam,” said Gerard Vroomen, co-founder of Cervélo.

Vroomen’s confirmation is in response to Sastre’s announcement that he will be riding for Cervélo TestTeam when his current contract expires.

“Carlos was the first rider who signed for our new team,” said Vroomen. “With his incredible kindness as well as his hardworking & determined character, we consider Carlos to be the ideal man to embody the attitude and spirit of our new Team. We at Cervélo, as well as our partners at Zipp, Speedplay, Vittoria and 3T, have long considered him a friend, so we are ecstatic that he is willing to support this pioneering venture. This is a new and unconventional format, but, to his credit, he instantaneously jumped on board and we are very appreciative of that. We are now in the process of building a great team around him and there will be more exciting announcements in the near future.”

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Stage 10 Results
1 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Crédit Agricole – 3.22.21
2 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
3 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Silence – Lotto
4 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank
5 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step
6 Koldo Fernandez De Larrea (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi
7 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Xavier Florencio Cabre (Spa) Bouygues Telecom
9 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC – Saxo Bank
10 Nikita Eskov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems

General classification after stage 10
1 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi – 36.46.17
2 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana – 0.11
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana – 0.32
4 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne – 1.00
5 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC – Saxo Bank – 1.38
6 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia – 2.10
7 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi – 2.23
8 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne – 2.32
9 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) Team CSC – Saxo Bank – 2.54
10 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank – 3.22

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