Liquigas’s Chicchi comes from behind to win in Missouri sprint

Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) came from behind on Saturday to win a bunch sprint in stage 6 of the Tour of Missouri, sweeping around Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) and Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita) in the final meters to win a Missouri stage for the second year in a row. Garmin-Slipstream's Dave Zabriskie "rode a wave of attacks" to preserve his overall lead headed into what race organizers promise is a difficult final stage on Sunday in Kansas City.

September 12, 2009 VeloNews.com

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Results

By Steve Frothingham

2009 Tour of Missouri, stage 6: Chicchi celebrates his second career Tour of Missouri stage win.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) came from behind on Saturday to win a bunch sprint in stage 6 of the Tour of Missouri, sweeping around Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) and Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita) in the final meters to win a Missouri stage for the second year in a row.

Garmin-Slipstream’s Dave Zabriskie “rode a wave of attacks” to preserve his overall lead headed into what race organizers promise is a difficult final stage on Sunday in Kansas City.

Saturday’s 110-mile jaunt brought the peloton to the edge of the West, St. Joseph, the eastern end of the Pony Express. The terrain was familiar — teeming with rollers, although a bit flatter than stages 2, 3 and 4 — but the pace and aggression were something new for this year’s edition. The stage set a new record average speed for a road stage at the 3-year-old race: 29.9 mph (48.4 kph).

Almost every team except Garmin had reason to get into a break, and almost every team gave it a go. It was good news for Garmin, Zabriskie said.

2009 Tour of Missouri, stage 6: Garmin rides the front.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

“It works in our favor a little bit, when so many teams want to be in a break we don’t necessarily take the front. We get away with 100 kilometers where we are not actually doing anything but riding a wave of attacks,” he said. “You can’t really take the front as a team and ride it — there are so many rollers the other teams can come off your guys and slingshot by you and then you blow yourself up.” It’s something the team learned last year defending Christian Vande Velde’s lead, he added.

Between the furious attacks and counter-attacks, none of which produced a significant breakaway, Garmin assisted where it could to keep the pace high and the group together. Will Frischkorn worked the front in the middle part of the race, while Tim Duggan was the workhorse at the end.

How it unfolded

Aggression was the order of the day — among those attacking in the the first 40 miles were Jeremy Hunt, Ted King and Brent Lancaster, all from Cervélo. King told VeloNews at the start that every rider on the team was given the green light to go on the attack. Other aggressors were Davide Frattini (Colavita-Sutter Home); Andrew Rendell and Francois Parisien (Planet Energy); and Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly).

Tom Zirbel’s tenuous hold on third place overall almost came undone on the first intermediate sprint of the day. Columbia’s Marco Pinotti is a fraction of a second behind Zirbel, and the Bissell rider lost hold of the Italian’s wheel coming into the sprint, which awarded three time bonuses.

2009 Tour of Missouri, stage 6: Jeremy Hunt, earning the most aggressive rider award with the day’s only real breakaway.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

“I was a little out of position, I was off his wheel,” Zirbel said. From a few meters back, Zirbel watched Pinotti sprint … and take fourth, out of the time bonuses.

Hunt had another go just before the feed zone and this time got a 90-second gap as the bunch paused for a nature break. Hunt motored along a rare flat section and then hit the growing hills, and at 57 miles the two-time British road champion had a three-minute lead, by far the biggest gap of the day.

Hunt, who was later awarded the day’s most aggressive award, was a victim of the continued mass aggression behind him, which suddenly reeled him in a matter of a few miles.

Another break then coalesced and dissolved. And that’s pretty much the way it went — break, chase, catch; break, chase, catch. It made for a fast pace — the bunch covered the first 77 miles in just over two and a half hours.

2009 Tour of Missouri, stage 6: Kelly’s Zwizanski on the front of one of the many attempted breakaways.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

With 23 miles to go the attacks continued unabated as seemingly everyone wanted to give Zabriskie the slip. As the race approached a KOM line with less than 10 miles to go, Frederique Robert (Quick Step) and Philip Gaimon (Jelly Belly) took off and grabbed a slight edge as Cervélo moved to the front to help set tempo.

The duo had just 20 seconds on the bunch as they hit the base of the climb, when an Astana duo blasted out of the pack, hoping to use the day’s largest climb as a springboard to a stage win.

Yaroslav Popovych and Steve Morabito quickly bridged to Robert and Gaimon, but by this point the sprint teams were set on a pack finish, while Moise Adalpe (Team Type 1) was determined to preserve his KOM lead. Robert threw in one last attack just before Aldape zoomed past to snatch the first-place points. A few tired souls fell off the back on the hill, but the rest of the peloton came together over the summit and the attacks, counters and chases resumed with a vengeance.

Attack, counter, repeat

Coming into St. Joseph, danger men Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) took off with Marco Pinotti (Columbia-HTC). The two were fifth and fourth overall, respectively, and when Morabito bridged up, Duggan and Bissell went to the front and led the chase; with five miles to go the break was snuffed out.

From there Columbia and Cervélo each tried to set up lead-out trains as attacks came right and left. A mile from the line Columbia’s Michael Barry took the front. Tony Cruz (BMC) was trying to muscle in on the Columbia train, but as Barry pulled off he was left out in the breeze.

Columbia then regained the front with U.S. pro road champ George Hincapie sitting in second wheel, trying to slingshot Bernard Eisel to the line.

But then it all came apart on the final broad, straight rise to the finish. Chicchi was at about sixth wheel or worse with 250 meters to go, but he shot up from behind, swooping around the right and past the leaders to cross in front of Hushovd and Sebastian Haedo, who were tangling near the barriers on the left side.

The Italian, who won the final 2008 Tour of Missouri stage in St. Louis, said he loves racing in the States.

“Everything is bigger: big open roads, big fans,” he said through an interpreter before accepting a Pony Express sculpture from St. Joseph’s mayor.

Chicchi also marveled at the day’s speed. “Not even in Europe do we go this fast. We were flying all day,” he said.

The final stage

Last year’s final stage was a relatively easy St. Louis circuit race. This year, the finale is a circuit in Kansas City that race organizers promise will produce aggressive racing.

The 10.2-mile circuit will be covered seven times for a total of 71.4 miles. Each lap is said to include more than 1,000 feet of vertical gain by way of four climbs.

“This won’t be a parade,” race marketing director Steve Brunner promised.

Race Notes

• Hushovd won the first intermediate sprint and now has a 17-point lead over J.J. Haedo in the green jersey competition.

• Adalpe now has a 13-point lead over Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank) in the KOM; the final race will award a maximum of 24 points, so his lead is far from certain.

2009 Tour of Missouri, stage 6: Zabriskie after donning his second yellow jersey.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

• Dario Cataldo continues to lead the best young rider competition, 13 seconds ahead of teammate Dominique Cornu. Cornu was accidentally left off the stage 5 results; officials announced Saturday morning that he had finished 1:16 behind stage winner Zabriski. He is in eighth overall.

• Saxo Bank leads the team GC competition.

• Quick Step’s Davide Malacarne and Jurgen Van De Walle, and Planet Energy’s Charly Vives dropped out of the race on Saturday.

• Garmin workhorses Will Frischkorn and Steven Cozza finished tied for last, 10:31 behind the leaders. It was the third time this week that Frischkorn has finished last or tied for last. “That’s the way it is,” Zabriskie said when asked why Frischkorn was given the worker duties. “You sacrifice the weak ones first,” he said with a cryptic Zabriskian grin.