September 12/09 22:26 pm - Tour of Missouri: Stage 6 report, Interviews and results

Posted by Editoress on 09/12/09
 

Resembling the stride of the Pony Express horse and rider depicted on a bronze statue at the finish line, Italian Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas-Cannondale) powered his way to the victory at Stage 6, presented by Wind Capital Group, in St. Joseph, Mo. Chicchi finished the 110.3-mile (177.5 km) stage in a time of 3 hours, 41 minutes, 41 seconds, nosing out Norway's Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team) and Argentina's Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita/Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light), who finished second and third, respectively. Race leader David Zabriskie (Garmin-Slipstream) finished in the main field, and retained the overall race lead.

"Of course, I love racing in the states. Everything's bigger. Big open roads and everything's wider. I love it," said Chicchi, a former World Under-23 Road Race champion (2002) who won the final stage of the Tour of Missouri last year. Today he received a special Pony Express statue from St. Joseph Mayor Ken Shearin.

"We were going 52K (kilometers per hour) for the first part of the race. So, we were flying all day. Only at the Tour de France do you see something like this," added the stage winner through an interpreter. The peloton averaged 29.85 miles per hour (48 km/h) for the day, making Stage 6 the fastest stage of any at the Tour of Missouri.

Stage 6, presented by Wind Capital Group, began at 1:00 pm in Chillicothe, situated in the rolling hills of northern Missouri and home to the first bread slicing machine for the town's nickname of "Home of Sliced Bread". Just before the first Edward Jones Sprint Line in Gallatin and close to 40 miles into the road race, Great Britain's Jeremy Hunt (Cervelo Test Team) launched a solo attack, which lasted for 30 miles. Garmin-Slipstream stayed at the front of the peloton all day, reeling in a number of attacks to protect the yellow jersey on Zabriskie's shoulders. A number of unsuccessful attacks took place along the rolling, tree-lined roadways, including a tough surge up a three-mile Michelob Ultra KOM climb on the outskirts of St. Joseph, home of the famous horseback mail service in the 1800's.

For his solo breakaway early in Stage 6, Hunt was awarded the Drury Hotels Most Aggressive Rider jersey. The other award jerseys remained the same: Zabriskie with the Missouri Tourism Leader's Jersey, Hushovd with the Edward Jones Sprint jersey, Dario Cataldo (QuickStep) of Italy with the 180 Energy/ Icelandic Glacial Water Best Young Rider jersey, and Moises Aldape (Team Type I) of Mexico with the Michelob Ultra KOM jersey.

There were no changes to the G.C. today. Zabriskie retains a 30-second lead in the general classification (G.C.) in front of Gustav Larsson (Saxo Bank) and a 44-second lead over Tom Zirbel (Bissell Pro Cycling). Levi Leipheimer (Astana) is in 6th overall in the G.C., 1'14" behind the race leader. Three riders did not finish today's stage – Italian Davide Malacarne (QuickStep), Belgian Jurgen Van de Walle (QuickStep) and Canadian Charly Vives (Planet Energy).

Tour of Misouri report

Interviews by Amy Smolens

Pre-race, Bruno Langlois - Planet Energy

Amy Smolens: You have some strong sprinters like Keven Lacombe and Martin GIlbert on your team. What's your role?

Bruno Langlois: My role is to make sure these guys go to the finish with all they need and they touch the wind as little as possible, and to try to bring them to the front at the last kilometres. But it's getting pretty hard here, it's pretty fast and it's hard to play, it's pretty rock and roll at the finish, we do our best and make sure these guys have water and stuff. Today I'm going to try to go in the breakaway and be more aggressive because I think there's a chance of a breakaway so we'll follow moves and see what happens.

AS: What do you expect from today - do you expect it to be hard, fast and windy?

BL: Yeah, there seems to be that there's a possibility of a crosswind and it's more windy today than the other days so we'll have to be careful about that. For sure there's going to be lots of attacks from the gun and it's going to be a hard stage.

AS: You've been around a while, so what are your impressions about the way your young teammates like Guillaume Boivin have been doing in this ProTour field?

BL: Yeah, it's pretty amazing to see these guys are good for fighting and getting in good position. Especially, when I looked (at the end of Stage 4) Guillaume was on Thor Hushovd's wheel with 500 metres to go and everybody wanted to be on this wheel, it's pretty amazing to see how this kid is doing so it's good for us and it shows that we have a place here and we're there to fight and try to get some stages.

AS: What do you think about Ryder Hesjedal having won a stage of the Vuelta a España yesterday?

BL: Its pretty amazing! It's good for Canadian cycling. It's good to see how Ryder is riding well right now so it's good hope for us and good for the development of cycling in Canada.

AS: Thanks, good luck.
BL: Thank you.

Pre-race, Andrew Pinfold- OUCH Presented By Maxxis

Amy Smolens: You've been sort of absent from the top placings in the sprint stages. What's been happening and can we expect to see you up there today or tomorrow?

Andrew Pinfold: I hope so. I've had a bit of bad luck. The day before yesterday I had a crash at the end and I was feeling pretty good. And the first day I had a bit of a mechanical in the last 500 metres. But yeah, John (Murphy) and I showed that were right up there at the end, just a little bit of hesitation but I think we can really build on those results if it comes together. It looks like a hard run-in, and I always seems to be better when it's a harder run-in and the big teams can't get a lot of control of the field. Hopefully we'll be able to put a result on the board today.

AS: What do you hear about the course and the wind?

AP: Well, I don't know, if the wind's up it looks like it's primarily going to be a tailwind, it's a long straight section. You know, there obviously will be sections where it could be from the side and that could alter what's going to happen in the race for sure.

AS: There are a lot of young guys with Planet Energy who have been doing pretty well here. Take how they've been doing, add Ryder Hesjedal winning a Vuelta stage yesterday - pretty good scene in Canadian cycling?

AP: Yeah, yeah, yeah! It's been a great little while for Canadian cycling! And (Geoff) Kabush doing really well at the Worlds and the World Cup. So you know, it seems like everybody's coming on here and stepped it up a bit so it's exciting to see and hopefully be a part of in the next little while.

AS: Good luck, maybe I'll talk to you after the race.

AP: Hopefully, hopefully - thanks!



Post-race, Andrew Pinfold- OUCH presented by Maxxis, 13th place on stage

Amy Smolens: How did the finale of the stage unfold?

Andrew Pinfold: Well, it was pretty hectic. For myself it was good, I had good position, probably right in the midst of it where I wanted to be up until the last corner, where a guy from BMC came in and chopped my front wheel, and I was coasting, basically not being able to pedal at all into that last corner, didn't have any speed and that's how she goes! I think it was a good finish for me and I was in good position but, you know, that's sprinting sometimes.

AS: There's always tomorrow...there's only tomorrow?

AP: Yeah, there's only tomorrow, exactly. We'll see how we can go I guess. It's going to be a hard circuit but we'll see, we'll try.

AS: Ok, see you tomorrow.

AP: Thanks.

Post-race, Martin Gilbert- Planet Energy, 6th place on stage

Amy Smolens: Crazy finale, with people attacking right and left, tell us what happened at the end.

Martin Gilbert: I think Keven (Lacombe) and I and Guillaume (Boivin) were pretty smooth together, it was a tactic, not stress too much in front, so it was good because it was pretty fast at the end with a lot of turns so we could keep our position well. At the end we still had problems to assemble and make one effort together. Before the second to last turn we got lost for a couple of people and because of that Keven and I were not together after, and then we couldn't put our effort together to lead out so we both sprinted, but we are a little bit pissed because we had the power to pass those guys but we came back from a little bit too far and we had no place to go. We had the momentum with the speed but it was not much place to pass. So I don't know, but I think we finished again 4th or 5th or something like that (Lacombe finished 4th.) So, it's kind of frustrating again to miss the podium by that close. I think one time it will come together and we will have it. We're always there, a little bit timing and luck and those things - we'll see.

AS: You have one more chance.

MG: Yeah, one more! One more day, so we'll try to do it!

AS: The circuit race tomorrow should be good for you guys?

MG: Yeah, for sure. The course looks hard, like with some hills. I think with the Time Trial yesterday a lot of the guys recovered. We took the TT pretty easy so it was kind of a rest day for us so today we felt good and I think tomorrow we'll feel good again. Last chance of the year so we'll try to take it again!

AS: See you tomorrow.

MG: Ok, thanks.