A quick rundown of the results from Stage 5 and Stage 6 (which finished today and marked the conclusion of the Tour of Missouri).
Stage 5
As is evident from my previous post, Stage 5 was, without doubt, the best stage of the ToM for Slipstream. Danny Pate capped off a great ToM performance so far by capitalizing on a perfectly executed bridge. Pate was part of an initial 10-man break to go ahead early in the stage. With less than 10 km to go, Pate attacked and bridged across to catch a 2-man break of Matti Helminen (Navigators Insurance) and Bernardo Colex (Tecos). Without hesitation and with only 1km to go, Pate passed Helminen and rode into St.Charles, MO solo! He crossed the finish 8 seconds ahead of 2nd place finisher John Fredy Parra.
28 Michael Friedman
32 Brad Huff
47 William Frischkorn
70 Patrick McCarty
87 Huub Duyn
95 Timothy Duggan
In a bunch sprint from the peleton, Steven Cozza took 19th place (9th place in the sprint) and retained his Best Young Rider jersey for the third day in a row. Will Frischkorn remained in 2nd place overall, and Michael Friedman stayed in 5th overall.
And in the Team Classification, Team Slipstream continued their lead, extending it to 13.38. Yesterday’s stage was a fantastic demonstration of Danny Pate’s talent and it is easy to see how he placed 2nd at the US Pro Time Trial Championships several weeks ago. What a victory for this team!
Stage 6
The Tour of Missouri came to a close today in St. Louis, and Team Slipstream finished the race with a surprise, albeit not the kind of surprise anyone wanted. Brad Huff, part of the sprint for the stage, collided with a barrier mere feet from the finish line and flipped off of his bike. (See the official Tour of Missouri Press Release here, which includes a good photo of the crash.) Thankfully, Brad was able to get back on his bike and rode over the finish line along with teammate Huub Duyn. The rest of the Team Slipstream doubled back and crossed the line with Huff and Duyn.
In better news, Steven Cozza secured the 2007 Tour of Missouri Best Young Rider jersey and Team Slipstream-Chipotle finished as the 2007 Tour of Missouri Best Team. Slipstream also finished with 2 top 5 riders in the general classification!
STAGE 6 RESULTS
24 Michael Friedman
26 Steven Cozza
27 William Frischkorn
30 Patrick McCarty
51 Danny Pate
63 Timothy Duggan
98 Brad Huff
99 Huub Duyn
FINAL CLASSIFICATION
2 William Frischkorn
5 Michael Friedman
13 Danny Pate
18 Timothy Duggan
25 Steven Cozza
29 Patrick McCarty
70 Huub Duyn
84 Brad Huff
Best Young Rider: Steven Cozza
Best Team: Team Slipstream-Chipotle
(According to cyclingnews.com’s race report, Mike Friedman was also involved in the crash, although from the Live Coverage, I could not tell if this was the case and the stage classification shows Mike finished. I do not want to discount that information, but I cannot verify whether Mike crashed from any other sources.)
Up next: My final thoughts and more information about what happens next for Team Slipstream!
Stay tuned and along for the ride.