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Zabriskie smashes Sedalia TT
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After four days of racing that left the first two riders tied and the first 85 riders within one minute of the leader, the 2009 Tour of Missouri finally took shape Friday in the stage 5 time trial. Garmin-Slipstream's David Zabriskie demolished the field, taking the stage victory and the yellow jersey on the same day his teammate Ryder Hesjedal took a historic stage win at the Vuelta a Espana.
Zabriskie blazed the Missouri race's 19-mile race against the clock in 36 minutes and 30 seconds, outpacing runner-up Gustav Larsson (Saxo Bank) by 30 seconds and Tom Zirbel (Bissell) by 44. He took over the overall lead from JJ Haedo (Saxo Bank) as the stage's top three assumed the top three spots on GC as well. Columbia-HTC's Marco Pinotti is fourth, just four-tenths of a second behind Zirbel.
Zabriskie said he was still riding the good form that earned him his fourth consecutive U.S. professional time trial championship last month.
"I felt like I had an enormous amount of power sprinting out of the corners ... when I'm in good shape I'm capable of these kinds of times," he said.
Zabriskie, who has never won a stage race in his professional career, will now have to defend the jersey through another sweaty road race full of endless rollers on Saturday, and then a difficult final circuit race in Kansas City on Sunday.
"I know I have the capability" of winning a stage race, he said. "It's just never panned out. This is looking pretty good."
Astana's Levi Leipheimer, a pre-race favorite, was disappointed with his fifth-place finish, which leaves him sixth overall, 1:09 behind Zabriskie.
"I don't like losing," Leipheimer told VeloNews. "I have no one to blame but myself. I worked as hard as I could coming back from my broken wrist, but maybe it was not enough."
Larsson said he might have been about 15 seconds faster if he had not been impeded by a race motorcycle in several corners in the last 3km.
"He was just stopping in my line," said the Swede, who earned a silver medal in the 2008 Olympic time trial. "I was shouting for him to get out of my way. It caused me to lose a lot of momentum and lose a lot of power as well."
Like the preceding three stages, the 19-mile time trial was anything but flat, including smaller versions of the rolling hills that have punctuated this race since its start in St. Louis. The race started and ended at the state fairgrounds in Sedalia, and the first and last kilometers threw some quick turns at the riders, including a quick sequence of 90-degree corners near the line. The middle included some fast straight riding past scenic fields, where riders battled headwinds much of the day.
Because of the unsettled GC race, the favorites were sprinkled through the start list.
Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Team Columbia-HTC) was an early leader, sitting atop the leader board with a time of 38:36. He was displaced (winding up 24th) by Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies), who finished in 37:42. Then Zirbel, runner-up to Zabriskie at nationals, bettered that with a 37:14.
But the Bissell rider was in for a double disappointment — first Zabriskie bumped him into second. Then Larsson, who started about 40 minutes after Zirbel, demoted Zirbel to the third step of the podium. The three had to wait for another favorite — Columbia-HTC's former TT world champion Michael Rogers — to finish before relaxing. Rogers turned a 38:16, only good enough for 15th place.
Race leader Haedo was last to start and to finish, crossing the line in 41:51 for 97th position and seeing his first-ever leader’s jersey cross over to Zabriskie.
Asked if his team could defend the jersey, Zabriskie replied: “I think the team is very strong and we will be able to defend it.” But he added that he would miss teammate and defending champion Christian Vande Velde, who crashed out of the race in the first stage with a broken bone in his left hand.
“It’s sad that he did break his hand because he would have been a very valuable asset to have in the next few days,” Zabriskie said.
Zirbel and his Bissell team will have its work cut out trying to maintain his fraction-of-a-second lead keeping Columbia-HTC off the GC podium.
"Columbia is a great team," Zirbel said. "I'll have to rely on my team and a bit of luck," to maintain his third place. Zirbel's hoping non-threatening riders will break away and gobble up intermediate sprints and their time bonuses over the weekend.
Race note
• Brad White (OUCH-Maxxis) retains his Most Aggresive Rider jersey for Saturday's stage. Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) leads the Best Young Rider competition. Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) leads the sprint competition and Moises Aldape (Team Type 1) leads the climber's competition.
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