By Mark Zalewski
|
 |
|
USA's George Hincapie (Columbia)
Photo ©: Roberto Bettini |
Fifteen teams are lining up for the
Tour of Missouri's sophomore year - a race that is wasting no time in
growing up. Now a full week long, the race will follow a similar
west-to-east route between the state's two largest cities, Kansas City
to St. Louis, with a stop in the capital Jefferson City along the way.
Like last year the parcours will not be challenging in terms of
climbing, save for the Branson time trial which seems to include every
hill in the Ozarks.
Defending champion George Hincapie is
back with a new team Columbia. But Hincapie might not be the top draw
from his team as British speedster Mark Cavendish is making the trip,
salivating at the plethora of flat and fast finishes. With Hincapie's
time trial ability, combined with Cavendish's recent three-in-a-row at
the Tour of Ireland, the potential for a clean sweep is not
unimaginable. The entire team is rather stacked since they are not
currently racing the Vuelta a España.
However the time trial battle should
be a good one and again be one of the deciding factors for the
overall. Riders like Hincapie, Garmin-Chipotle's recently crowned
United States of America time trial champion Dave Zabriskie and Tour
de France fifth place finisher Christian Vande Velde are all top time
trialers. Though Liquigas has its younger team here, a young talent
Roman Kreuzinger, winner of the Tour of Switzerland, is an overall
threat. Tom Zirbel (Bissell) finished just five seconds off Zabriskie
in the recent US championship and will be looking for a second chance.
Canada's champion Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) is no stranger to hilly time
trials, winning the Tour de Beauce in that fashion. |
