The US professional cycling season started for Christian Vande Velde with a visit to the podium after he finished third overall in the Tour of California in February.
The year is drawing to a close with Vande Velde on the top step of the podium as he wins the 2008 Tour of Missouri by protecting his lead during the 7th Stage in St. Louis on Sunday.
Joining the 32-year-old Garmin Chipotle cyclist on the podium were Michael Rogers of Team Columbia and Svein Tuft of Symmetrics. The two finished behind Vande Velde by the same margin — 18 seconds for Rogers and 48 seconds for Tuft — they held since Vande Velde won the Stage 3 time trial on Wednesday to take over the race lead.
Last year's winner George Hincapie of Team Columbia finished in 4th, trailing by 1:03.
The scheduled 70-mile race around St. Louis was abbreviated to 50 miles because of flooded roads in places caused by the passing of Tropical Storm Ike.
I don't know if that threw Mark Cavendish off his game, but he was beat in a sprint by Francesco Chicchi of Liquigas. The Italian cyclist had jumped onto the Team Columbia train that was leading out the Brit who had won 3 previous sprint finishes at the Tour of Missouri this year.
Vande Velde
“I shouldn't say it was easy, but I'll take it,” he said.“Actually, it was some of the best racing I've done this year. It was aggressive, particularly for a race at the end of season. A lot of guys just went for it from the start.”
This certainly was the break-out year for Vande Velde. A loyal and hard-working domestique for US Postal, Liberty Seguros and Team CSC during his career, he switched over to US-based Garmin Chipotle for 2008 and became one of the stars of the team.
When Garmin, then known as Slipstream, won the Stage 1 team time trial at the Giro d'Italia in May, it was Vande Velde who was first across the line with the honor of wearing the pink jersey the next stage.
Vande Velde became a dark horse favorite at the Tour de France in July, as he rose into the Top 10 and ended the tour in 5th place overall, his best finish ever in the race.
Background
The Lemont, Illinois, native comes from a cycling family; his father, John, has been inducted into the US Bicycling Hall of Fame. And even though those who watched him grow up knew he'd be a formidable cyclist, Vande Velde has talked in interviews about how he didn't know what he was capable of until this year.
Which raises the question of what Vande Velde can accomplish next year. For team manager Jonathan Vaughters, there is no doubt: Vande Velde can stop Lance Armstrong's bid for another Tour de France title.
“Christian will be a better rider than Lance. … Christian can show the fact he was fifth in the Tour de France this year was not because of the absence of other people. It's because he's actually that good of an athlete. So to me, there's really only up side. We just have to up our game a little bit.”
For the first time in a long time, I'm already looking forward to next season.
More results at CyclingNews and VeloNews.
Other Biking Bis stories at “Who is this Christian Vande Velde?” and;
“Christian Vande Velde, more a star than a water carrier”.
And don't forget to check out the new Christian Vande Velde Fan Club.
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