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Mark Cavendish wins his second Tour of Missouri stage

Columbia’s win machine keeps rolling

Published: Sep. 9, 2008
Mark Cavendish (Columbia) takes another at the Tour of Missouri.
Mark Cavendish (Columbia) takes another at the Tour of Missouri.
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

There were no surprises in Springfield.

With his second consecutive field-sprint victory at the Tour of Missouri, a mad dash to the finish line in the university town of Springfield, Columbia phenom Mark Cavendish extended his 2008 win streak to 16 road victories as well as a world Madison championship on the track.

Additionally, the 23-year-old from the Isle of Man — also known as a Manxman, or, in street slang, a “Manxsta” — has now won multiple stages at this year’s Giro d’Italia, Three Days of De Panne, Tour de France, Tour of Ireland and the Tour of Missouri.

On Tuesday Cavendish made it look just as easy as he did one day earlier, led to the line first by George Hincapie, who won the stage in Springfield last year from a 12-man breakaway, and then Bernhard Eisel before coming around with 150 meters to go and easily out-sprinting German Eric Baumann (Sparkasse) and 2003 Italian under-23 world champion Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas).

“My team is just brilliant,” Cavendish said. “They are so well-drilled at this, and they controlled the race all day and put me in perfect position for the sprint at the end. It was case of keeping our position until the last two kilometers and then hitting out. The pace was so high that I was dropped off at 150 meters to go. When you get dropped off at that speed with 150 to go, there's nothing you can do but win. I really didn't have to do anything except sprint at the end.”

Cavendish retained his overall led, extending it to 12 seconds over Chicchi, with Baumann third overall, at 14 seconds.

American Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Chipotle, who finished second to Cavendish on Monday, finished fourth on the stage after losing position in the final kilometer.

“That’s sprinting, there’s a bit of luck involved,” Farrar said. “The guys did a really good job for me, taking care of me in the last 20km. I just got jostled back on the last two turns, and ended up coming from a little ways back for the sprint. I lost my chance for the win right there.”

Farrar, whose Garmin-Chipotle team boasts several riders expected to excel in Wednesday’s difficult uphill time trial, admitted that the opening stages were likely his best chance to come away with a stage win.

“I really hope that at the end of tomorrow’s stage we have the jersey. That’s the plan, we’re here to win the GC,” Farrar said. “Obviously if we are riding for the GC I won’t have seven other guys riding for me at the finish. But if we can win the overall, that would be great.”

No runaway breaks this year

Heading into the longest stage of this year’s Tour of Missouri, at 126 miles, all minds were on the events of 2007, when a 12-man breakaway ran away with the race, finishing more than 14 minutes ahead of the peloton.

However last year’s peloton included a Discovery Channel squad that included Hincapie, eventual Missouri time trial winner Levi Leipheimer and that year’s Tour de France champion, Alberto Contador. This year, Hincapie has come to Missouri as the defending champion on a team looking not only to set up Cavendish, but also time trial specialists Michael Rogers, the sport’s only three-time elite men’s world time trial champ, and Marco Pinotti, winner of the Tour of Ireland earlier this month.

Is it us, or did he start celebrating a couple of klicks from the line?
Is it us, or did he start celebrating a couple of klicks from the line?
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

“Last year was a little bit different situation in that we didn’t have a sprinter, and we weren’t leading when I got away,” Hincapie said before the start. “Today I would guess it will be a little more controlled in the peloton. But you know it’s U.S. racing, everyone has got something to prove, it’s big, wide roads and it’s very aggressive all the time, so it’s never easy to control here.”

The stage’s key breakaway formed when Reid Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) and the pair was followed shortly after by fellow North Americans Mike Sayers (BMC), competing in his last stage race as a professional, and Andrew Randell (Symmetrics). German Andreas Schillinger (Team Sparkasse) bridged across to make it a five-man move.

“We got going really good right away, and nobody skipped a pull except to feed,” said Mumford, who became a father for the first time three weeks ago.

Sparkasse and Liquigas kept an eye on Cavendish, to no avail.
Sparkasse and Liquigas kept an eye on Cavendish, to no avail.
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Unlike Hincapie’s prediction, the move did prove easy to control for Columbia. The break reached a maximum advantage of 3:15 before Columbia set young Americans Craig Lewis and John Devine on the front for the first two or three hours, with Canadian Michael Barry occasionally rotating through.

“We did everything right. That’s not to say it was easy,” Lewis said. “When you have someone like Cav' to work for, that’s all the motivation in the world. We kept them in good check, and the wind made it a good day to pull. Every time we looked back, it was all strung out. Nobody was having an easy time.”

The five men worked well through the picturesque farmland and woodland areas of southwestern Missouri. However Columbia took up the chase in earnest with 20 miles remaining, and the break’s advantage fell from two minutes to just 35 seconds with 10 miles left. By the time the field had hit the 10km to go mark, the pack was gruppo compacto. From there, Columbia simply set up its lead-out train.

“The guys worked all day to control the front and bring me on to the circuits and then they gave me an amazing leadout,” Cavendish said. “Mick [Rogers] drove it from the 2km mark with two Liquigas guys sitting in just behind him. He took it all the way to the 800m to go mark and then George [Hincapie] just moved out and took over. He went so hard over the small rise. We were flying and then Bernie [Eisel] took over and all I had to do was sprint.”

Like Farrar, Chicchi said he was in good position until the final turn, where he lost “three or four positions.”

“I started my sprint way back, and caught up as many positions as possible,” Chicchi said.

Cavendish admitted that his long season, which began at the Amgen Tour of California where he won a stage but was relegated for a vehicle assist back to the peloton, has taken its toll.

Asked if he was tired, Cavendish said, “A little bit, mentally more than anything. I think switching from the track to the road, the road to the track that’s been the hardest part this year. I love the racing on the road. To me it’s better than training. But transferring back to the track has taken a big toll on me.”

Cavendish said he had originally planned on ending his season after the Tour of Missouri, but said he would now extend his season through the world championships, held in three weeks in Varese, Italy.

“I’ve got no aims to win the world champs this year, but I do in the future, so the experience in the race is good to have,” he said. “After world champs I’ll take a well-earned break.”

Columbia controlled the front of the peloton all day.
Columbia controlled the front of the peloton all day.
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Asked if he intended to soft pedal Wednesday’s stage 3 time trial, Cavendish said that “would be unfair to the race and the race organizer,” and that he intended to “honor the yellow jersey.”

“I’m not optimistic about my chances, but I’ll give it my all,” Cavendish said.

Into the time trial

Favorites for Wednesday’s time trial, held in the resort destination of Branson, include Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde, David Zabriksie, Tom Danielson, Danny Pate and Steven Cozza; Columbia’s Hincapie, Rogers and Pinotti; Liquigas riders Roman Kreuziger and Vincenzo Nibali; and Toyota-United’s Chris Baldwin and Ben Day.

Many see Vande Velde and Rogers as the odds-on favorites. Vande Velde has improved his time trialing this season, winning a TT in April at the Circuit de la Sarthe, and finishing fourth in the final time trial of the Tour de France. Rogers, who has battled Epstein Barr virus for the majority of the season, returned to form with a sixth at the Olympic road race 
and eighth at the Olympic time trial.

Hincapie said he saw the favorites as, “Vande Velde, Zabriskie, Pinotti, Rogers, and hopefully myself.”

“There are also a few guys who have outside chance,” Hincapie said. “[Symmetrics rider] Svein Tuft did a great time trial at the Olympics. [Bissell’s] Tom Zirbel has been time trialing well. These domestic guys have so much to gain from doing well in these races, they get that extra push, so they are always hard competition.”

Cavendish in yellow.
Cavendish in yellow.
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Dark horse picks include BMC’s Jeff Louder, the overall winner last month at the Tour of Utah and fifth-place finisher at the national road championships 10 days ago, and Zirbel, who finished second to Zabriskie at the August 30 national time trial championship.

Louder said he couldn’t make any predictions based on last year’s performance, as he wore the KOM jersey and based his ride on the KOM points available from the bottom of the course’s final 2km climb to the top. (Those points aren’t offered this year.)

Zirbel missed last year’s Tour of Missouri, but said, “I like hard time trials, but I usually lose some time if it is significant uphill. I haven’t had a chance to see the course. I wouldn’t say it suits me as well as a rolling course. A hard TT is never something I shy away from. I’m looking forward to it, it’s just a matter of conserving a little energy without too much effort.”

The same could be said, however, about most riders. Time shall tell.

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