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Cav' doubles down in Missouri
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Race leader Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) rocketed past Cervélo's Thor Hushovd on Tuesday to win stage 2 of the 2009 Tour of Missouri.
It was another chaotic finale as ProTour and domestic teams butted heads in Cape Girardeau, battling to set up their sprinters in the final miles of the 112.3-mile ride from St. Genevieve.
No matter. Cav' simply attached himself to Hushovd's wheel when the Cervélo man made his dash for the line, then shot past for his second consecutive win in this year's tour. The Norwegian hung on for second with Saxo Bank's J.J. Haedo third.
Asked if he had a preference for a type of finish, Cav' shrugged: "It’s irrelevant really, as long as I get across the line first."
How it unfolded
Defending champion Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream), who broke his left hand in a crash during stage 1, had hoped to be able to continue, but thought better of it, pulling out in the neutral zone as the race went on without him for the rolling ride to Cape Girardeau.
The usual fusillade of attacks came and went — Brad White (OUCH-Maxxis), Jason Donald (Garmin), Frank Pipp (Bissell) and Tim Johnson (OUCH) were among those trying and failing to snap the elastic — but nothing stuck until Timothy Duggan (Garmin) joined forces with Francois Parisien (Planet Energy) and Kiel Reijnen (Jelly Belly) about 20 miles into the rolling stage.
The threesome built a lead of nearly five minutes before Columbia-HTC began tugging on the leash. Also contributing to the chase were Saxo Bank, Colavita-Sutter Home and Cervélo TestTeam, for J.J. Haedo, brother Sebastian Haedo and Hushovd.
"I really don’t think it was flat for a single kilometer," Duggan said. "It wasn’t really a climb ever, but it was just up or down the whole time."
With 25 miles to race the break’s advantage was down to just over two minutes. Five miles further along it was 90 seconds and falling. After suffering a mechanical, Reijnen was forced back to the bunch with some 17 miles left to race, but Duggan and Parisien kept cranking out the revs.
"I got my chain wrapped around the crank pretty bad, and I had to stop," Reijnen said. "I was really hoping to go for the aggressive jersey, so I was bummed not to have that opportunity."
A truce, then surrender (or not)
Fifteen miles from the line the gap was just a minute and it seemed clear the break was doomed. Undaunted, Parisien tried a couple of sneak attacks, but they failed; each time Duggan rejoined him without difficulty. Finally the two shook hands and waited for the catch.
It was a short-lived truce. When the gap fell to 30 seconds with 10 miles to race, Parisien tried another couple of digs.
Asked whether he was racing for the win or for the most aggressive jersey — which he was awarded at day's end — Parisien said it was simple: “You always race for the win. That’s the only reason I race my bike.”
Still, Duggan clawed back to Parisien, and then countered unsuccessfully.
But by then the bunch had them in view, and it was finally game over.
Kelly Benefit Strategies took the front and ramped up the pace, perhaps thinking of David Veilleux. They should've thought again, though — Columbia shouldered past and really put the pedal to the metal. Then Cervélo muscled in, too, along with Garmin, Colavita and OUCH-Maxxis, and it was starting to look like anybody's race.
"You know, they make a big deal about pulling around the Columbia train, but they make us pull for 160k, so what do they expect?" Columbia's George Hincapie said. "But the responsibilities on us, so we take it."
Just outside the final kilometer Veilleux unleashed a last-ditch solo attack, a nice try but not good enough. Cervélo ran him down and took control with Cavendish locked to Hushovd's wheel.
"With a K to go, when I saw Cervélo go, I jumped onto Thor’s wheel," Cavendish said. "I know I can come off Thor pretty easy, if I can get his wheel — he’s got a team that’s really experienced at what they do, they’re going to drive it hard into the last corner, and I’m going to be in a good position. The best position is to be on my teammates’, but the second best is to be on Thor’s wheel."
The position seemed to work just fine. Cav jumped off Husvhod's wheel and glided across the line with an easy gap, while Hushovd and Haedo traded places from their finishing order on stage 1.
"At the moment, Cavendish is that one step ahead of everybody, so he’s really hard to beat unless he makes a mistake," said Haedo, who sprinted through some traffic to claim third. "Thor tried today, he had the perfect leadout, but Cavendish is faster. There’s not much to do, but keep trying."
The rest of the peloton has five more chances to try for a stage win. Stage 3 of the Tour of Missouri is a 165km affair from Farmington to Rolla. Stage 4 is another rolling day from St. James to Jefferson City. Stage 5 on Friday is the decisive time trial in Sedalia. Stage 6 takes the race from Chillicothe — where the bread slicer was first made - to St. Joseph, and the race concludes Sunday with a circuit race in Kansas City.
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