Hushovd second in 4th stage of Tour of Missouri

Thor Hushovd in yellow. Photo: Cervélo TestTeam.

11-Sep-2009: The fourth stage of Tour of Missouri from St. James to Jefferson City was a deceptive one. The easy rolling start from St. James, morphed into a challenging finish circuit 109.2 km down the road in Jefferson City.

A four rider breakaway with Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly), Jeff Louder (BMC Racing Team), Bradley White (OUCH p/b Maxxis) and Michael Creed (Team Type 1) managed a lead of just over three minutes. Cervélo with help from Liquigas and Garmin kept them in check and controlled the race until the leaders were brought back just inside the final 15 km. Especially daunting for the sprinters was the “capitol wall”, a steep 300-meter climb, to the finish line adjacent to the states’ Capitol.

Today’s daunting finish up the steep 30 metre “capitol wall” once again became a sprinters challenge between J.J. Haedo (Saxo Bank), who won the stage, Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd in second and Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) in third. Cavendish left the race this morning due to illness.

“It was really a fast lap, lots of hard corners and the last 300 metres was a really hard hill,” said Thor Hushovd. “The team was pulling all day they did a great job. Haussler lead me out and I think I waited too long or lost a little speed. In the end J.J. Haedo came from behind and he had more speed. But I’m happy with second place. My form is good and the TestTeam is enjoying the Tour of Missouri. Now I’m second overall, I’d like to have the lead but I’d like to ride a good time trial I’ll do my best and we’ll see how I end up.”

For complete TestTeam results and more pictures, click here