Chalk up Stages 1 and 2 of the Tour of Missouri to Mark Cavendish, the amazing British sprinter on US-based Team Columbia.
Stage 3 will be a different story, however, as the 18-mile individual time trial around Branson isn't expected to be the Brit's strong suit.
Teammate George Hincapie is a strong time trialist and Wednesday could be his day to launch his defense of last year's Tour of Missouri title. He'll be facing strong competition from two Garmin-Chipotle cyclists — Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie, who successfully defended his US pro cycling time trial championship over Labor Day weekend.
The standings are plenty tight right now. In fact Hincapie and Vande Velde are 10 seconds out of first place, along with three-fourths of the peloton. Zabriskie is 30 seconds behind, which he can easily make up.
Tuesday's Stage 2 win marked his 17th win this season, including four at the Tour de France. Part of his success comes from his Columbia teammates who have a lot of success at setting him up for the final sprint.
These pictures
As luck would have it, Ms. Biking Bis was in Kansas City this past weekend for a business conference. Her hotel happened to be right on the criterium path for Stage 1 of the Tour of Missouri.
Realizing her good fortune, she occasionally slipped out of her meetings and shot some pictures for Biking Bis. As always, I'm eternally grateful anytime that someone else does work for me.
Two pictures are from the recreational route rides scheduled in various host cities prior to Tour of Missouri stages. She said this one seemed plenty popular.
Two other photos show the women's criterium that preceded Tour of Missouri's arrival. Brooke Miller of Team Tibco is shown crossing the finish line.
The weather had totally deteriorated by the time the peloton showed up, but she did stay outside long enough to get a shot of Team Columbia's Bernhard Eisel, Michael Barry, and a third teammate racing down the street.
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