Race Report - Tour 0f Missouri, Stage 2
By Neil Shirley, Kelly Benefit Strategies

Today we got a preview of Missouri’s rolling hills. The first 25-miles featured two KOM climbs not to mention endless leg breaking rollers. We knew there was a chance that a strong GC group could get away early in the stage, so we tried to be extra attentive early on. After the first of the two KOM’s, I went across to a strong 20-man group with Leipheimer and Zabriskie. I thought that there was a chance that could be the right break for the week but we were eventually caught by a splintering field. Once all back together and over the second KOM a few non-GC threats formed the days break. The team plan is to save energy the first few days and look for only the breaks that have a chance of staying away to the end. This was not one of those breakaways, so we didn’t try to stick anyone in the move.

Enthusiastic fans!

Columbia went to work on the front letting the break take out a four minute lead and then holding it steady for the next 80-miles. Mile 30-90 was super boring, just riding through the cornfields of Missouri. Once we got into the last 15 miles things started to get more exciting. The break was caught and all the teams were vying for position. We set out with a plan to hit the front with 3-miles to go and keep Cando out of the chaos as long as possible. We were able to hit the front but it was a little earlier than we planned on and we ran out of steam with still a long way to go. Fortunately I still had good legs and found Cando with 2K to go and dropped him and David Veilloux off in the front of the peloton. Cando went into the final corner with 300 meters to go in 4th position but ended up losing a couple spots in the sprint to finish in 6th. Not bad, but definitely not what we’re looking for. The top euro sprinters here have another gear compared to the domestic scene but we’ll keep trying each day.

Tomorrow is the day that everyone is saying will be the real deal. It looks hard on paper so that means it will be really hard to race on! Bajadali, Bowman, and myself are riding well, so we hope to make the right splits on the hills and have a few guys to contend for the stage win by the end of the day. I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,

Neil