Tour of Missouri Stage 1 goes to Mark Cavendish

The Brit who's been winning sprints on his bicycle all across Europe this spring and summer is doing so in North America now.

Mark Cavendish, the 23-year-old cycling phenom for US-based Team Columbia, won Stage 1 of the 2008 Tour of Missouri in windy and wet Kansas City on Monday.

His dash for the finish in the 90-mile race from St. Joseph to Kansas City marked his 16th win of the season, including four at the Tour de France. Team Garmin Chipotle's Tyler Farrar of Wenatchee, Washington, finished a close second.

Breakaway

A two-man breakaway of Martin Kohler of BMC and Tom Zirbel of Bissell got away early in the race gaining over five minutes. They slowed down to allow Jonathan Sundt of Kelly Benefit Strategies to bridge up to them. All the while, Team Columbia was leading the chase.

The trio was swallowed up by a chase group of about 20 riders about 22 miles from the finish line.

As the peloton neared the finish, riders from Columbia, Garmin-Chipotle and Liquigas all worked to set up their sprinters. Columbia controlled the train rolling to the finish. A big crash in the final kilometer took a lot of cyclists out of contention.

It was a close finish, so close that some commentators initially called the race for Farrar.

Cavendish

Cavendish was originally supposed to ride in the Tour of Britain this week, but the team's sponsors wanted him to race on US soil. It certainly adds to the cachet of the Tour of Missouri to have Cavendish here. After the race, Cavendish said:

“I was just there. I was on George's (Hincapie) wheel and Toyota (United) got the jump in the last kilometer. Tyler (Farrar) jumped at 200 meters and I just slotted on his wheel and that gave me an extra two seconds rest. It was just a case of kicking past him and crossing the line.”

Team Columbia's George Hincapie is looking to defend his Tour of Missouri championship that he won last year as a member of the Discovery Channel team.

Team Garmin-Chipotle, which raced as Slipstream until the Tour de France, would like to upset those plans. Farrar almost upset Columbia's Stage 1 victory.