St. Louis, MO – U.S. National Criterium Champion John Murphy of the OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis took 9th place in the bunch sprint of the first stage of the 2009 Tour of Missouri Monday.

The entire 7.5-mile circuit in St. Louis was lined with fans. The finishing area, in the heart of downtown, was six deep people getting a good look at the fast-moving peloton.

“We wanted to be attentive today, but also race intelligently,” said team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. “The sprint was pretty chaotic, with everyone fighting for wheels. Murphy did a good job.”

Bradley White of OUCH Presented by Maxxis waited until the final lap of the race to get in his first break of the week. White jumped off the front in the closing kilometers along with Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) in an attempt to upset the rhythm of the sprinters’ teams but at that late stage, they weren’t given too much leash.

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St. Louis, MO – Brooke Miller and Team TIBCO have swept the four-race Women’s Tour of Missouri Series, part of the Gateway Cup in St. Louis this Labor Day weekend. The four-rider squad, which included Katharine Carroll, Alison Starnes and Rushlee Buchanan, had to contend with full rosters from teams like Colavita/Sutter Home and Team Type 1. Yet they still delivered Miller to four consecutive victories.

This morning, on a course that covered part of the circuit for today’s opening stage of the men’s Tour of Missouri, Miller once again took advantage of a stealth leadout from Carroll.

“It’s our new tactic, leadout from behind,” Miller joked.

Coming into the final lap, Miller was situated behind the Colavita train, with Carroll behind her on her wheel. With about 500 meters to go, as she had done Saturday, Carroll launched from behind Miller, who jumped on her wheel. Carroll dove the final two corners and dropped off Miller coming out of the last turn with 200 meters to go.

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Oakland, CA – The OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis heads into the Tour of Missouri Monday with a balanced roster well suited to the hard, rolling course of the seven-day race.

“Missouri is definitely not a pure climber’s course,” said team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. “For the overall, it favors riders who can get over the climbs but also time trial well.”

For that reason, OUCH Presented by Maxxis has brought together a roster with both conventional overall contenders such as Rory Sutherland and Chris Baldwin, but also classics-style riders like Karl Menzies, Andrew Pinfold and U.S. criterium champion John Murphy, who could find themselves sprinting from breaks, or even contending for the overall title if a break sticks like it did in 2007, when 12 riders got off the front in Stage 2 and opened a gap of 16 minutes.

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SpiderTech to sponsor the Tour of Missouri pro cycling race

Missouri is about to spin a web of Spiders from one end of the state to the other. NUCAP MEDICAL’s SpiderTech, the sixteen ready-to-apply taping applications known as Spiders designed to improve performance by supporting muscles, improve blood and lymphatic circulation, alleviate pain and correct joint problems, will sponsor the third running of the Tour of Missouri bicycle race scheduled to take place September 7-13, 2009 featuring some of cycling’s marquee stars from fifteen of the best professional teams from around the globe. Specifically, the sponsorship will directly support the medical team that provides health care for the entire race caravan, including the riders, directors, officials, and team and race staff.

“In terms of the demands placed on a professional athlete’s body, a pro cycling stage race ranks amongst the toughest,” said SpiderTech creator Dr. Kevin Jardine. “We are thrilled to be involved with the Tour of Missouri, one of the biggest bike races in the U.S, as it shall provide a demanding environment – a mobile laboratory if you will - to further demonstrate SpiderTech’s ability to successfully improve performance, reduce pain and accelerate recovery. SpiderTech excels in this type of event because of the various ways it can contribute to an athlete’s and a team’s successes. In fact, we’ve tagged SpiderTech as ‘the legal advantage’ because of the numerous benefits use of the product can provide.”

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Thousands of fans lined the streets of downtown St. Louis to watch Team Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde cross the finish line safely and win the 2008 Tour of Missouri. Vande Velde, winner of Stage Three’s Individual Time Trial, was awarded the Missouri Tourism Yellow Jersey for the race after successfully maintaining an 18-second lead over Michael Rogers of Team Columbia who finished second in the General Classification. Svein Tuft of Symmetrics rounded out the podium in third place.

“It’s been a really great race from day one,” said Vande Velde, who finished fifth in the 2008 Tour de France. “I didn’t expect to win the time trial, but from then on, it was game on with everyone throwing everything at us, trying to take away the 21-second gap I had from the time trial. In the end, I was happy that everyone gave us such a fight because the win means that much more to us.”

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With less than 500 meters from the finish, Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia powered passed a hard charging group of riders to win Stage Six of the Tour of Missouri. Cavendish’s win was his third and Team Columbia’s fourth of the Tour. Cuban sprinter Ivan Dominguez of Toyota-United Pro Cycling, winner of two stages during last year’s Tour of Missouri, finished in second place and Jelly Belly’s Brad Huff of Springfield, Mo., finished third.

Mark Cavendish (Columbia) wins the sprint ahead of Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United) and Brad Huff (Jelly Belly)

“I’m really fortunate to have such strong guys working so selflessly for me. They do it every time and I’m glad I can repay them with a win every time,” said Cavendish of his Columbia teammates. The young British sprinter won four stages in this year’s Tour de France.

With the mass finish, there were no significant changes to the General Classification standings with Christian Vande Velde of Team Garmin-Chipotle holding on to the Missouri Tourism Leader’s jersey going into Stage Seven. Vande Velde and his Garmin-Chipotle team will look to protect his 18-second lead over Michael Rogers of Team Columbia. Svein Tuft of Symmetrics remains in third place. Other notable Americans in the G.C. top ten include 2007 Tour of Missouri winner George Hincapie of Team Columbia in fourth place, Vande Velde’s teammate Tom Danielson in fifth place and Jeff Louder of BMC in eighth place.

Riders began Stage Six of the Tour in the Bavarian-Style town of Hermann at 12:30 p.m. The race for the Edward Jones Sprint Points Jersey took center stage as Eric Baumann of Sparkasse hit out from the start to scoop up points from the day’s three intermediate sprints. Fifteen miles into the stage, Baumann took the first sprint in New Haven and didn’t look back. Baumman captured all three sprints, briefly taking over the sprint points lead.

Break led by Carlos Oyarzun (Tecos) crests the first KOM followed a few minutes later by the field with Steven Cozza (Garmin-Chipotle) and the Symmetrics team in front.

Back in the peloton, teams Garmin-Chipotle and Symmetrics set the pace at the front of the peloton, both aiming to defend the first and third positions in the G.C. As the undulating landscape thinned into the flat grounds near St. Charles, the peloton steadily reeled in Baumann and the ten-man break. As the race entered St. Charles historic district, teams Rabobank, Toyota-United, Garmin-Chipotle and Columbia lined up their sprinters with Cavendish getting the best of the peloton again.

Stage 6 podium: Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United), Mark Cavendish (Columbia), Brad Huff (Jelly Belly)

Another good day for Columbia with Most Aggressive Rider Bernhard Eisel and Mark Cavendish in the green sprint jersey

With no Michelob Ultra King of the Mountain lines during tomorrow’s circuit, Dominique Rollin of Toyota-United will wear the Michelob Ultra King of the Mountain jersey tomorrow. Roman Kreuziger of Liquigas will wear the THF Realty Best Young Rider jersey. With his stage six victory, Cavendish will defend the Edward Jones Sprint jersey tomorrow. Bernhard Eisel, the last surviving rider of today’s breakaway group, was awarded the Drury Hotels Most Aggressive Rider Jersey for Stage Six.

No changes in the jerseys, Roman Kreuzinger is still Best Young Rider and Dominique Rollin is the 2008 Tour of Missouri King of the Mountain and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) still wears the yellow jersey

For the second consecutive year, the 2008 Tour of Missouri will culminate with a 70 mi/112.7 circuit race around St. Louis, starting at 2:00 p.m. The course features three final opportunities to earn Edward Jones sprint points, taking riders by several St. Louis landmarks, including Forest Park and Union Station.

All photos copyright Lyne Lamoureux

I caught up with the BMC team at the start of the 2008 Tour of Missouri stage 5, in St James where the riders were getting ready for another aggressive stage in high humidity. Mike Sayers announced his retirement earlier this year, and is racing his last big race at the Tour of Missouri. Going into the day, Jeff Louder was sitting in tenth place in the overall classification and had been very aggressive in the previous day’s break. Darren Lill had a great time trial result finishing in seventh place but missed the move on stage 4, and is now back to hunting for stage wins and assisting his teammate in moving up the GC. Finally, Jonathan Garcia is hitting his form after suffering two hard crashes this year.

This is your last big race, this is it. How does it feel?
Mike: Yes, this is it. I get mixed feelings, the team, I think they finalized the roster this week, and they are doing a press release, I feel a little bit left out honestly but it’s part of it. Especially after a day like yesterday where I suffered a little bit and those are the days I’m not really going to miss. I think as we get closer to Sunday, it’s going to be a little more difficult. The only good thing is that Ive known it’s coming and I can prepare myself for it, just going to give the last couple of days everything I got. The team is riding really well which is awesome, that’s one thing I’m really proud of, how far the team has come, how far the team is going. It’s just kind of the natural evolution of things.

The BMC team seems to have brought it up a level in the last few months, what brought this on?
Mike: I just think it was the progression, I just think it took us some time to get guys organized and get some experience in the bank, again I think we’ve reached that point, obviously the leadership from Gavin[Chilcott] and John [Lelangue] has made a big difference, they were always pushing guys to be aggressive and I think it does help you get a little more cohesive. I think it’s just a combination of things, I just think it’s generally the natural maturity of how things are going. And you bring in some more experienced riders like Tony [Cruz] and Jeff [Louder], they make a big difference, it’s not just me telling guys what to do, those guys are talented enough to kind of lead by example, it’s been really nice and a really nice team to finish up with, that’s one of the great things, I get to leave on one of the best teams and just kind of be proud of that whole thing.

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Dutch rider Boy Van Poppel of Rabobank got the best of the charging peloton around him, powering ahead of them to cross the finish line first and win Stage Five of the 2008 Tour of Missouri his first in the U.S. The 20-year old Dutch cyclocross champion’s well-timed effort netted him the slight edge over teammate Michael Van Stayen for his first win in the United States. Keven Lacombe (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) rounded out the top three.

Rabobank teammates Boy Van Poppel and Michael Van Stayen get the 1-2 spots

“I was in fifth place and there was someone coming from behind. He attacked and took a few meters. I was thinking I had to go now. It may be too early but that’s better than too late,” said Van Poppel. “I was waiting for the guys behind to come to my left but no one came and I was going ‘yes, I’m going to win.”

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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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