Brazilian wins Columbia stretch
Luciano Pagliarini won stage four, but placed 76th overall.
Published Sept. 18, 2007
Luciano Pagliarini rode through downtown Columbia with a throng of men hot on his trail.
No, he wasn't a wanted fugitive.
He was the winner of Stage Four of the Tour of Missouri cycling race.
On Friday, Stage Four took the riders from Lebanon, Mo., to Columbia.
Pagliarini of Brazil took the stage win, his first win of any stage at an event in the United States.
"It was not easy," he said. "But I saw a little road on the right and that was the moment. But it was so long for it to arrive. But I was very fast on the back."
Pagliarini told one of the photographers before the stage that he would get the win, something he attributed to his conditioning.
"I knew this stage was good for me," he said.
Pagliarini won the stage despite facing a headwind most of the way.
"It was pretty tough, especially for the breakaway riders, because we were pushing right into a headwind," said Steven Cozza, of Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle.
Cozza did well enough in the stage to remain in the lead in the best young rider category.
Pagliarini said it wasn't too much of an obstacle.
"The hills were not very long," he said. "It was good to break away."
Pagliarini said the race was comparable to what he sees in Europe.
"This race is a very good race," he said. "I have been a professional rider for eight years, and I have seen all the races in the world."
He compared the stage to the Paris-Nice stage of the Tour de France.
"It's like a little Tour de France because the organization is very good and the stage has very good roads," he said.
American George Hincapie maintained the overall lead through the stage in Columbia.
"(I'm) just trying to do the same as today," he said after the Columbia stage, but before he won the tour. "I don't mind if a breakaway (rider) goes. We've got a pretty comfortable lead. We just need to make sure nobody dangerous gets away."
Ivan Dominguez, who had won Stage One, used a late push to win the final stage on Sunday in St. Louis.
But the final push was not enough to catch Hincapie in the overall standings.
Second-place finisher William Frischkorn was more than a minute behind Hincapie in the final overall standings.
Pagliarini finished 76th in the overall standings.
