Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) will be racing in Missouri (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Some big names will line up for the Tour of Missouri, running from September 8-14. Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie will lead Garmin Chipotle. From Europe, the Italian Liquigas team banks on the duo of Roman Kreuziger and Vincenzo Nibali.
Garmin is ready to put up a fight again. "We will be back to win," said Jonathan Vaughters, director of the Garmin-Chipotle team. "This is not an end-of-the-season fun race for us. This is a serious objective for our team. It's a major event now."
Vande Velde finished fifth in this year's Tour de France, while Zabriskie is slowly getting back to form after a severe crash in the Giro d'Italia left him sidelined for most of the season. The duo will be joined by William Frischkorn, who is last year's runner-up of the event. Frischkorn finished 1'38 behind George Hincapie (Columbia).
The entire Garmin line-up consists of Christian Vande Velde, David Zabriskie, Danny Pate, William Frischkorn, Steven Cozza, Mike Friedman, Tyler Farrar and Jason Donald
HealthNet presented by MAXXIS will be led by Rory Sutherland, this year's top-ranked rider on the American professional circuit. Sprinters Karl Menzies, Frank Pipp and John Murphy, along with Tim Johnson, the current U.S. National Champion in cyclo-cross, Kyle Gritters, Kirk O'Bee and Phil Zijacek help round out the squad.
Canada's top team Symmetrics will be led by Svein Tuft, who recently competed at the Beijing Olympics. Other notables are sprinters Andrew Pinfold, second to Ivan Dominquez at Stage 1 in Kansas City, Canada's top young rider Cameron Evans and Eric Wohlberg.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Mexico's top club Tecos provided last year's Tour of Missouri with a lot of excitement and aggressive racing. The team will feature a combination of climbers and rouleurs, including Bernardo Colex, who won a stage and finished second in Canada's top stage race this summer.
Sparkasse, a top club team from Germany, features several very fast sprinters, including Eric Baumann and Sebastian Frey.
