Hushovd gets the better of Cavendish in Rolla

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While the Tour of Missouri's peloton skirted ominous weather in the Ozarks, the finishing city of Rolla felt the full fury of a Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) storm front at the conclusion of stage three. Third on Monday and second on Tuesday, Hushovd could taste victory on both of the prior stages, yet each day Columbia-HTC's Mark Cavendish stole his thunder and leapt around the Norwegian in the closing metres. Not today, as Hushovd claimed his first career Tour of Missouri stage win.

Cervélo TestTeam adjusted its tactics accordingly on Wednesday, eschewing a classic lead-out train for a cascade of chaos in the closing kilometre. "We didn't want to make a proper lead-out today because Columbia had been riding [on the front] so they didn't have that many guys left," said Hushovd. "If we did a proper lead-out than maybe Cavendish will get on my wheel and then it's easy for him. We just wanted to make it hard: we attacked, we went really fast in the end and I think that's how we messed up the whole lead-out into the sprint. In the end it suited me perfectly."

Unlike the first two stages which had flat, technical run-ins to the finish, the finale of the 183.9-kilometre third stage was a straight-shot for the final 13 kilometres, albeit chock full of leg-busting rollers all the way to the finish line. Hushovd felt quite at home on the wide, undulating tarmac paving his way to victory in Rolla.

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"We wanted to put pressure on Columbia and we know that when the finish is hard like this, I think it suits me more than it suits Cavendish," said Hushovd. "[Brett] Lancaster attacked with 800 metres to go and George Hincapie had to close this gap. I think that’s where they got stuck in the front too early and we went again on the other side. I think it worked out perfectly for us and I had the legs to do a good sprint in the last couple of hundred metres.

"In the end I went to a lead-out from one Quick Step guy because my riders had already done the work before. I didn't see Hincapie anymore so I just found my wheel and did my own sprint," he said.

Columbia-HTC spent the day setting tempo on a taxing stage, which thoroughly tested their mettle due to 7,000 feet of climbing. While his team-mates endured pace-making duty on the front, the 24-year-old Cavendish, too, found himself vexed by the terrain.

"Every day is the same, you can't get into a rhythm," said Cavendish. "Up and down, up and down on the stage today, you just have to labor up them. It's tough for everyone.

"All my guys were used up early today,” he admitted. “No one helped us out a bit. Yeah, it was a chaotic finish."

The 10 bonus seconds Hushovd earned for his victory today put the 31-year-old Norwegian in a tie for first on general classification with his young sprint rival Cavendish and the officials sought out the rule book to determine the yellow jersey's new owner. The first tie breaker is based on looking at fractions of seconds from a prologue or time trial, neither of which had taken place yet at the Tour of Missouri.

The next criteria is to total the finishing placings of the completed stages, with the low total being declared the general classification. Hushovd has finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd for a total of six, while Cavendish has placed 1st, 1st and 5th for a sum of seven. By the slenderest of tie breaking arcana, Hushovd donned the yellow jersey in Rolla in addition to claiming the green sprint jersey from the Briton as well.

Cervélo TestTeam entered its first Tour of Missouri with modest goals, yet the team now assumes responsibilities accorded a general classification leader. "Cervélo TestTeam had one goal and that was to get a stage win. Now that that’s done we can close our suitcases and go home," said Hushovd with a laugh.

"When we have the yellow jersey we have more responsibility," continued Hushovd. "We were pulling on the first stage with Columbia and of course yesterday and today they had the fastest rider in the peloton so it is just the way it is, they had to work. Tomorrow we will see what we can do and we will do our best to keep the yellow jersey as long as possible."

Tour déjà vu

While the Tour of Missouri's hilliest stage to date offered a venue for motivated riders unsure of their time trialing ability to perhaps gain significant time over the chrono specialists, only three riders took the bait. After a rousing sendoff from downtown Farmington, the day's first pedal strokes in anger arrived from the Garmin-Slipstream duo of Mike Friedman and Will Frischkorn 14.5 kilometres into the stage.

The only reaction from the rest of the 114 riders came from Australia's Matt Wilson (Team Type 1), who bridged the 1:30 gap to the Garmin-Slipstream pair just after the day's first intermediate sprint won by Friedman at kilometre 25.3. After taking a few kilometres to catch his breath, Wilson slotted into the rotation for what would be nearly a race-long break.

"I was hoping a couple of other guys would come with me," said Wilson. "If you have four or five guys today it would be a good chance it would go away. I couldn't see any of the other teams helping Columbia after they've won two stages."

After turning off the main highway MO 32 onto MO 21, 40 kilometres into the stage, the leading trio set to work on conquering more of the endless undulations characteristic of Missouri's Ozarks. Wilson took top honours at the day's first mountain classification 12 kilometres later, followed by Frischkorn and Friedman, as the trio now extended their lead to 3:05 over a Columbia-HTC-led peloton. For his efforts, Wilson took home a US$1,000 bonus prime for capturing the first KOM on offer.

The escapees replicated their finishing order for the second intermediate sprint at kilometre 88, with Friedman leading Frischkorn and Wilson, while a similar patter emerged at the second and third KOMs taken by Wilson ahead of Frischkorn and Friedman.

"We talked about it on the road and had a few discussions about what we'd do," said Wilson. "There's nothing worse when there's only three guys and you're racing each other for every bonus sprint. We decided that they'd take the bonus seconds and I'd take the KOMs so it worked out for the both of us."

While the breakaway scooped up all the bonus seconds at each of the day's two intermediate sprints, the three mountain classification lines offered points to the first five across, leaving the peloton to battle for the fourth and fifth place points. Moises Aldape Chavez (Team Type 1) started the stage wearing the climber's jersey, but Denmark's Chris Anker Sorensen (Team Saxo Bank) remained tied on points ensuring a hard-fought campaign for mountains supremacy.

Aldape Chavez scored two fourths and a fifth on the day's KOM offerings, which put the Mexican Team Type 1 rider into a clear six-point lead over Anker Sorensen. "Matty [Wilson] was taking them [KOM points - Ed.] up front, so we had two cards to play," said team owner Phil Southerland. "In the field Moises got a point on the first one and won the next two from the field so it's rock solid. We’ve got a good gap going.

"I'm feeling more secure, but it's a long way to go,” he said. “We want to snag that KOM [jersey] and we'll do everything we can for that one."

The three riders worked together well throughout the undulating terrain in the 184km stage, but the distance and the hills took their toll on Frischkorn, who sat up with 33km to go with a hunger knock. He said goodbye to Friedman and drifted back to the peloton.

"We were working fairly good," said Wilson. "Friedman took it easy through the middle 100 kilometres. When Frischkorn dropped off I told Friedman, 'We've got to start picking it up now'. Columbia was holding us at two minutes so we tried to pick it up and Friedman was working pretty good towards the finish but we didn't hang on to it."

Two men just weren't enough to fend off the chase from the mighty Columbia-HTC team, and the pair were brought back inside 10 kilometres to go and the battle for the sprint began. An attack from Team OUCH started hostilities with 2.5 kilometres to go, and a counter by Garmin-Slipstream's Danny Pate put the general classification men on notice, with Michael Rogers (Columbia-HTC) and Levi Leipheimer (Astana) marking the move.

The Cervélo TestTeam then took control at the front, hoping to set up Hushovd for the stage victory. A tough hill into the kilometre banner proved to be a launching pad for Cervélo's Heinrich Haussler, but on the descent, Columbia-HTC pulled the move back for Cavendish, hoping the Briton would take his third consecutive win.

But it was not to be, as the dash to the line turned into a drag race across four lanes of road. Cavendish could only manage fifth place behind Hushovd, Juan Jose Haedo (Team Saxo Bank), Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) and Daniel Oss (Liquigas).

Thursday's stage eight from St. James to Jefferson City is the only repeat stage from the 2008 edition of the Tour of Missouri. The 175.7-kilometre stage was a day for the sprinters last year and the peloton's fast men will look to a fourth consecutive day to vie for stage honours.

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