Race Report - Tour of Missouri, Stage 4 & 5
By Neil Shirley, Kelly Benefit Strategies
Stage 4 started off like Stage 2, fast and aggressive. Large groups kept getting gaps on the field and when they were caught another counter would go. It was full throttle over the rollers for the first 20 –miles of the stage. I was trying to stay in the front since the roads were narrow and it was easy to get shuffled to the back if you weren’t attentive. I really wanted to be in the break today since I have only followed wheels all week. Although some of the Pro Tour teams were being aggressive sending riders up the road inevitably four riders went off the front one by one and eventually came together to form the break of the day.
What looked like a chance for a really hard day of racing ended up being the same as the past three stages. Garmin, Liquigas, and Cervelo all put riders on the front and went to work ticking out a steadily hard tempo. KBS wasn’t too disappointed that it was going to be a sprint since they got 3rd on this stage last year. The finish was on a tough circuit that had a tough uphill kick. We all made sure to eat and drink all day since it was hot and humid. It can be easy to neglect your nutritional needs during a stage race since you have to consume so many calories every day. If you don’t eat enough one-day it can really be hard to pull yourself back out of a hole for the remainder of the week.
The pace really picked up within the last 15-miles. All the teams were jockeying for position before going into the technical circuits. Just before entering the circuits our GC rider for the week, Scott Zwizanski flatted. I dropped back with one other teammate to help him chase back on. Although we were able to move through the caravan an get back into the field one of the race officials didn’t like how long we were on the back of our team car and penalized us 20 seconds on our GC time. Not so much of a big deal for me but it could be a huge blow for Zwizanski going into the weekend. Only time will tell to see how much the 20-second penalty affects his GC.
Once back in the field I tried to recover as best as possible and get ready to help out Cando in the sprint. Things got really crazy with 2-miles to go when a wreck gapped off half the field. I was one of the last riders to make it through the carnage. I found Cando with just 1K to go and slotted him into the top-10. Cando ended up getting boxed in when we hit the last 300 meters and ended up finishing outside of the top-10. It was disappointing to miss out on a better result but we were all happy to have made it through the wreck without hitting the ground.
Stage 5- 20-mile Time Trial
This stage wasn’t exactly one that I was looking forward to. Since the only time trials I like are the ones that go uphill this was not going to be the highlight of my week. But, it was a great course for Zwizanski who was coming off of a 3rd place finish at the USPRO TT champs just ten days ago. I rode a hard tempo but tried to not go too deep since I’m still hoping to have a good crack at the stages this weekend. Zwizanski ended up smoking the TT and finished in 7th place. He was the 2nd placed domestic rider behind Garmin bound Tom Zirbel. The frustrating part is that even though he was 7th today he isn’t in the top-10 on GC because of the 20-second time penalty yesterday. There is a chance that the penalty will be overturned but I won’t hold my breath.
So, going into the weekend it looks as though there could be some good hard racing. Plenty of teams will want to spoil the party for Garmin and take the leaders jersey from them. Hopefully we can get Zwizanski moved up on the GC a bit further and in the process have the rest of us get to throw some smack down.
Thanks for reading,
Neil
