Mon, 17 Sep 2007
Tour of Missouri Wrap Up
I watched part of the race Saturday. I was able to hear the interview
with Johan Bruyneel and it was very interesting to hear how Bruyneel
contrasted the reception of the Discovery Channel team in the US
compared with Europe. It's seems they are a bit bitter over the way
things have gone in the sport. I can't say I disagree completely.
Not that I am against something being done about all the substance abuse
but still, the sport is really self destructing. It was also announced
that the Navigators team will be folding after this year. They are a top
US based team who also did a fair about of Euro races.
I left thinking that this stage would be very similar to the day before with the sprint oriented teams bringing back together in the end. But I was wrong and it must have been a very exciting finish to see Danny Pate attack and win solo at the end. I would think this is probably one of his biggest wins (if not the biggest).
Sunday I went down to the course. The stage consisted of a circuit race. The idea here is that you do multiple laps on a closed course. The course was about 10 miles in length and they would do 7 laps. I was walking around the far west end of the course which was DeBaliver avenue. I had my amateur radio HT with me and about half way through I got the race radio frequency. This is not the audio that the fans listen to on the Internet but it's what the team directors listen to. It is mostly just information. They relay time gaps and the numbers of the racers. The time gaps were most useful. There was a break of 4 that formed early but Discovery was again holding the rope and with this course being mostly flat, I was sure they were not going to stay away for the whole race. I was really hoping the Missouri native Brad Huff would be up there and it looks like he was right on Ivan Dominguez' wheel but apparently hit someone or something and crashed into the barriers on the left at high speed. He is OK from all the information I received.
Cycling news has lots of photos. A local racer took some good photos and caught Huff right before he impacted the barriers. And here's some YouTube video of the climb from Saturday. A couple of my Big Shark teammates are in the frame at the end.
I guess I just can't express how exciting and really surprising the reception of the race has been. 30 thousand people in St. Charles Saturday to see the finish and 55 thousand at Union Station finish line Sunday. I think next year I'm going to try and see more stages. This is really turning into one of the premier bike races in all of North America.
[/cycling/professional] 2 comments permalink
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