The Team Type 1 vehicle chases mountains leader Moises Aldape Chavez over the 30-kilometre course. (Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Moises Aldape’s aggressive bid for a breakaway put him in the Tour of Missouri’s King of the Mountain leader jersey after the first stage. Now he heads into the final stage with a 13-point lead over Saxo Bank’s Chris Sorensen. With four more climbs to contest a total of 24 points are still up for grabs in the stage seven circuit race held in Kansas City today.
“Our tactics have been to go with these aggressive attacks, especially in the first stage because, for us, it is a little bit difficult in the time trial and the sprints,” Aldape said. “We don’t have a sprinter here. It’s better for us if we stay aggressive during each stage and try to get into all of the breakaways. We look to ride hard on the last day and see what happens.”
The peloton will complete seven short but challenging 16-kilometre circuits, totaling 114-kilometres. There are two significant climbs on each circuit, the first located three-kilometres in to the lap at the top of Kessler Rd while the second is located six and half kilometres in at the top of Summit St.
"So tomorrow I will have to be very attentive,” said Aldape, who has calculated his winning scenario. “There are two KOMs on lap three. If Sorensen doesn't get any points on either of those two, I'll be the winner."
The battle between the top 20 overall contenders, who are within two minutes of one another, will also resume. USPro Time Trial Champion and stage five winner David Zabriskie’s (Garmin-Slipstream) holds a 30-second cushion over second placed Gustav Larsson (Saxo Bank), meaning fans could see some tough racing for the yellow jersey.
Aldape will no doubt be attentive in who moves up the road when calculating his points. Given that Team Type 1 has won eight KOM jerseys since its inception in 2008, chances are good that he will be able to solidify the polka-dot jersey on the finale podium.
“I don’t know why we are always in the KOM jersey,” Aldape said. “I think it’s because we are always attacking. We are off the front so we go for points and that is how we normally start it.”
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Over the past two editions Team Type 1 has won eight King of the Mountain titles world-wide at the Tour de Beauce, Bend Memorial Cascade Classic, Tour of Ireland, Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Tour of Taiwan, San Dimas Stage Race and the Vuelta de Bisbee.
“It’s important for our team to win a jersey at the stage races,” he said. “Here we have gotten a lot of press attention for having the KOM jersey and this is really important for our Team Type 1. It sends the message out about Type 1 diabetes and the attention is very important for our team.”
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Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
