Vande Velde Takes the Tour
Francesco Chicchi of Team Liquigas overtakes Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia in the final meters of the Tour of Missouri's seventh stage on Sunday in St. Louis.
The Tour of Missouri came to a close yesterday in the streets of downtown St. Louis with Garmin/Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde taking the overall win.
The final stage of the tour ended with a breakneck sprint down Market St. with most bets being placed on another win by Team Columbia’s Mark Cavendish, but with only a few hundred meters to go it was Francesco Chicchi of Liquigas who took the stage.
The race day began early with the announcement that the course would be cut from 75 miles due to flooding in Forest Park, leaving the racers with a 50 mile, five lap circuit race beginning and ending in front of city hall.
With the streets slick from a short rainfall as the race began, riders Kirk O’Bee of Health Net-Maxxis and Jeremy Powers of Jelly Belly made a break from the main peloton, with four laps to go their chances of maintaining the break were slim.
The two riders were eventually overtaken by the peloton near the end of the race.
Fans and spectators lined the Market St. for the final lap of the race as riders jumped out of their saddles and made the sprint to the finish, with Chicchi taking first, Cavendish second, and Tyler Farrar of Garmin/Chipotle taking third.
Thanks to help from his teammates, Vande Velde who took 16th in the final stage, managed to maintain his overall lead in the tour, and take the gold jersey home.
On the podium, Team Columbia broke out the champagne to celebrate taking the overall General Category team win, with four stages under their belt.
Leaders of the main peloton fly past spectators as they head onto N. Tucker Blvd. during the second lap of Stage 7 on Sunday in St. Louis. The final stage of the Tour of Missouri took competitors on a five lap, 50-mile city circuit.
Members of Team Columbia break out the champagne after taking the overall General Category prize for winning the most stages (four) on the tour.
Overall Tour winner Christian Vande Velde of Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O stands on the podium with second place finisher Michael Rogers of Team Columbia and third place finisher Svein Tuft of Symetrics Cycling on Sunday in St. Louis.