Team Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle continued to pound one another — and the rest of the field — at the Tour of Missouri, with Mark Cavendish taking stage 6 in a sprint and Christian Vande Velde retaining the jersey after his Garmin teammates patrolled the front on an aggressive, windy day.

Toyota-United’s Ivan Dominguez took second, followed by Jelly Belly’s Brad Huff, a Missourian native hoping for a home-state win.

The day's break

An 11-man break was on the move for most of the 96-mile stage from Hermann to St. Charles, with Garmin getting some help in its chasing duties from Symmetrics, which had Svein Tuft’s third-place GC spot to defend. Columbia, which had Bernard Eisel in the break, was uninterested in helping chase.

The most dangerous man in the move, GC-wise, was BMC’s Jeff Louder, who started the day in 9th, 2:42 down on Vande Velde.

The breakaway had a maximum advantage of more than four minutes, before Garmin and Symmetrics got serious and started bringing down the gap.

Crosswinds and Columbian bombs

After rolling down from the hills toward the flat floodplain of the Missouri River valley, Columbia's Dutch team director, Tristan Hoffman, felt at home, and ordered his riders to go on the attack, in hopes of shaking Vande Velde from the group.

Up front, Eisel split from the dwindling breakaway just as it was about to be caught. He solo'd for two miles while Columbia's George Hincapie, Marco Pinotti, Michael Barry and Michael Rogers traded attacks and hammering at the front of the dwindling front group.

As Eisel was caught, Pinotti went with a move by Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas). That, too, was shut down by Garmin.

Coming into the final 4km, Columbia took the front and wound it up for Cavendish. A few teams jockeyed for position — Health Net even got two guys on the front within the final kilometer — but Mark Cavendish isn’t one for sharing when it comes to sprints. Hincapie led him around a tight corner with 700 meters to go — a corner where several other riders near the front almost lost it. He bombed across the line in his green points jersey, claiming his third win of the seven-stage Tour of Missouri.

Afterward Cavendish showed his usual gratitude for his team, and straight-faced confidence.

2008 Tour of Missouri, Stage 6: Eisel took a late-race solo flyer that fell a little short.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

"With the team I've got, I've got no chance of losing," he said. Asked if he had researched the American-based sprinters he has faced in Missouri, Cavendish said he had heard of some of them. "To be honest I'm not afraid of anyone, no matter where they are from or where they race, you know?"

Vande Velde said the day had two challenges: his own nerves in the opening miles, and the crosswind section near the end.

"Always at the beginning it takes me a while to really feel good," he said. The crosswind section, where Columbia threw down a series of attacks, did not stress Vande Velde much. "We hadn't used up all our riders, we still had some bullets," he said.

"We knew they were going to throw everything at us."

Race Notes

• Dominque Rollin (Toyota-United), is one of the larger riders to win a KOM title. The Canadian sprinter won the points title at the Tour of California this spring. "Hopefully I can go for the GC at the next stage race," he said.