Cavendish sprints to win in Missouri opener

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 The Labor Day holiday may be a day of leisure and a portent of an end to summer fun for the masses gathered in downtown St. Louis, but Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) proved he's all business as he outkicked his sprint rivals in the closing metres to claim stage one honours. Despite having his Columbia-HTC team controlling the peloton throughout the afternoon, it took a bit of improvisation approaching the finish for Cavendish to earn his 22nd victory of 2009.

Cavendish won in sight of the iconic Gateway Arch ahead of Juan Jose Haedo (Team Saxo Bank) and Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam).

"George [Hincapie] hit a pothole with about 200 metres to go and he was obviously in pain immediately," said Cavendish. "I told him to ease off and I jumped on Thor's wheel as he got a lead-out from his team-mates. I got on Thor's wheel and it was just a case of coming off his wheel and coming around him as close to the line as I could to save energy. It was an uphill, headwind finish and I think that plays to my advantage, to get the jump.

"It's great around here and there is so much support for me and my team that makes it special to be here,” he added. “There’s nothing more depressing than going to a race with dead roads and a dead finish. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of, all the people down the finish straight were tremendous."

Runner-up Haedo took the sometimes challenging road surface in his stride, although his final kilometres were a punishing affair for other reasons as he sought the most coveted wheel in the peloton.

"I followed Cavendish today in the sprint probably from two kilometres to go," said Haedo. "The other guys tried to kill me pretty much to get that wheel. I felt like I was in an Argentinean sandwich, I had one guy on the right and one guy on the left. I managed to be in one piece but for me, I'm pretty happy.

"I don't have too much support because most of my team is general classification guys so I have to go on my own,” he added. “I don't have a lead-out like these guys [Cavendish and Hushovd - Ed] and not to many options to play so I got on Cavendish's wheel."

Someone with options to play was Norway's Thor Hushovd whose final lead-out rider brought him around Cavendish with 300 metres remaining on the wide-open, slightly uphill finishing straight. Hushovd, though, also came to grief with a manhole cover in the final kilometre which made for a less than ideal sprint finish.

"It was a 70 km/h sprint. It wasn't too dangerous except for the holes in the road," said Hushovd. "I broke my [front] wheel with one kilometre to go but I sprinted anyway. With that much speed and my weight it is dangerous, but what can you do. In a sprint you don't slow down because there are 20 other guys who want to knock you down.

"Today Columbia controlled the race and Cervelo TestTeam overtook them in the last 300 metres, so I was really happy with my guys today,” he added. “I had Brett Lancaster as my last lead-out so that was perfect. He pulled all the way through the last corner and to 60 meters to go. I started my sprint but JJ and Cav passed me."

The first rider to cross the finish line in St. Louis had a special prize awaiting - a Buell 1125R motorcycle, valued at USD $15,000. Cavendish was well aware of the victor's award.

"I could see that white moto at the finish line and it was dangling like a carrot in front of me," said Cavendish.

When asked how the team will split the moto prize, Cavendish was quick to respond. "F*** 'em," he said with a laugh. "No, I don't know. I'm sure there's a way. We all celebrate our successes together and that includes prizes. As a professional bike rider that's usually prize money and obviously with a prize like this we will figure out a way to do it fairly."

Five riders crashed within the final kilometre at the latter portion of the peloton, including defending champion Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream), Heinrich Haussler and Andreas Klier (Cervelo TestTeam) plus Tom Zirbel and Peter Latham (Bissell Pro Cycling). All of the riders were given the same finishing time as stage winner Cavendish.

Gateway City kicks off third Tour of Missouri

The rains blanketing St. Louis in the days approaching the Tour of Missouri's opening stage were long gone on Monday, and the 118-rider strong field rolled off the downtown start line facing 10 laps of a 7.5-mile (12.1km) circuit. Perhaps soaking in the early lap scenery of St. Louis' majestic Gateway Arch and the aroma of hops wafting from the Anheuser-Busch brewery 4.1 kilometres into the downtown circuit, the peloton rolled along at a moderate 35 km/h.

Having completed the first pass of the famed brewery, two riders - Frank Pipp (Bissell Pro Cycling) and Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly Cycling Team) - fired the opening salvo of the Tour of Missouri and quickly gained 10 seconds on the field. The American duo remained off the front, but within sight, of the peloton after the first circuit.

Bradley White (OUCH Presented By Maxxis) jumped away from the peloton and attempted to reach the two escapees as he crossed the Market Street start/finish line. White's attempt proved unsuccessful, but two others counterattacked when White was brought back, Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) and Jeremy Hunt (Cervelo TestTeam). Cataldo and Hunt joined Pipp and Powers to form a leading four, but their stint together proved short-lived as they were all absorbed by the field on the circuit's longest straight, the 3.9-kilometre section of Broadway between the loop's second and third turns.

The next act of aggression would prove to be the day's decisive break as Tomas Vaitkus (Astana), Chris Anker Sorensen (Team Saxo Bank), and Moises Aldape Chavez (Team Type 1) escaped the peloton mid-way through the second lap. The leading trio scooped up all of the bonus seconds at the conclusion of lap two, the first of three intermediate sprints, as Vaitkus led Aldape Chavez and Anker Sorensen across the line. David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies) would try to make the leading trio a quartet, but the Canadian's effort soon came to naught as he was brought back into the peloton.

In addition to three intermediate sprints during the stage at the end of laps two, five and eight, the riders had two opportunities to earn mountain classification points on Russell Boulevard's gradual ascent, 6.9 kilometres into laps four and seven. Anker Sorensen led Aldape Chavez and Vaitkus across the KOM line on lap four as the trio's lead stabilized at one minute over a Columbia-HTC led peloton.

The break's advantage ever so gradually decreased over the following four laps until the trio found itself only 15 seconds in front of a fast-moving peloton paced by Columbia-HTC. While the break was kept in check by Cavendish's teammates, the juncture to the escapees was not made before Aldape Chavez won the second and third intermediate sprints and Anker Sorensen captured the second KOM sprint.

The trio's seven-lap escape came to a close on lap nine as the teams of the sprinters - Columbia-HTC and Cervelo TestTeam - upped the tempo in anticipation of delivering their respective fast finishers to the line in a field sprint. Several riders were not content to let the sprinters get an armchair ride to the finish as first Matthew Crane (Jelly Belly) made a solo attack on the penultimate lap and Bradley White (OUCH Presented By Maxxis) and Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) sought stage glory on the final lap, but each break was soon neutralized after gaining no more than 10 seconds.

With five kilometres remaining on the final lap White and Milne were brought back by a Columbia-HTC driven peloton, who despite a hiccup in the final 300 metres delivered Cavendish to his 22nd win of 2009.

Musical jerseys

The 10-second bonus earned by Cavendish for the stage victory put him in the race lead, and the Briton also found himself at the top of the sprint classification and the young rider classification.

Chris Anker Sorensen (Team Saxo Bank) would claim the Tour of Missouri's first mountains classification jersey for his efforts off the front, while Moises Aldape Chavez (Team Type 1) would be unsure of what jersey he'd wear on Tuesday's second stage. The Mexican Team Type 1 rider won the most aggressive rider jersey and finished second in the sprinter's green jersey competition to Cavendish. Cavendish, however, has to wear the leader's yellow jersey on Tuesday's second stage.

"The break was good for my team because it would have been difficult to win in the sprint against a rider like Cavendish," said Aldape Chavez. "Sorensen won the first KOM. Thomas went for the sprint with me and he won. But I believe won the next two sprints. I'm not sure what jersey I'm supposed to wear tomorrow, the most aggressive or the green. Either way, having or wearing a jersey is really good for my team."

Aldape Chavez will wear the green sprinter's jersey on Tuesday, while his most aggressive rider's jersey will be worn by breakaway companion Tomas Vaitkus on tomorrow's 180.9km second stage from Ste. Genevieve to Cape Girardeau.

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