Hincapie wins first-ever Tour of Missouri

By Julie Bierach, KWMU / AP

St. Louis, MO –

George Hincapie is the winner of the first-ever Tour of Missouri, which ended yesterday in St. Louis. He raced for the Discovery Channel team, best known for former team member Lance Armstrong.

"It was very important for us to have a strong team here and try to get the win," Hincapie said. "Having basically most of the Tour de France team working for me was really special.

"I'll definitely miss those guys in the next couple of years."

Team Slipstream-Chipotle won the team title with two of the top five overall finishers, and Discovery Channel was second.

Ivan Dominguez of Toyota-United took his second stage of the tour in a mass sprint, finishing in 2 hours, 37 minutes, 13 seconds. He also won the first stage, an 85-mile road race with finishing circuits in Kansas City.

Brad Huff of Springfield, the top sprinter for Team Slipstream-Chipotle, crashed within 100 yards of the finish line. Huff ended up several yards away from his bike after flipping over the handlebars, but rode across the finish line after team members rushed to his aid.

The 34-year-old Hincapie has been with Discovery since the team's inception 11 years ago and was a key member of units that won the Tour de France eight times, the first seven by Lance Armstrong and the last this year by Alberto Contador.

Contador also raced in the Tour of Missouri, this time serving as support. Hincapie, of Greenville, S.C., took the individual lead in the second stage, a 125.6-mile road race from Clinton to Springfield. He sat in the peloton throughout the final stage, which made seven laps past Union Station downtown, losing only two seconds off his cushion of 1 minute, 40 seconds entering the finale.

The Discovery team also featured Levi Leipheimer and Yaroslav Popovych, who finished third and eighth in this year's Tour de France.

William Frischkorn of Team Slipstream-Chipotle, perhaps the successor to Discovery Channel as the dominant U.S. team, was second overall. Dominique Rollin of KodakGallery was third 2:09 back, followed by David Canada of Prodir-Saunier Duval (2:21) and Michael Friedman of Slipstream-Chipotle (2:46).

"It's been a great experience for the team," Frischkorn said. "Also, it shows we're ready."

Thousands of fans lined downtown streets for the largest major cycling event in St. Louis. It was an unprecedented third major sports contest on the same day downtown, with the St. Louis Rams and St. Louis Cardinals both playing to sellout crowds totaling about 110,000 just blocks away. The St. Louis Blues, even closer to the start and finish line, played their opening preseason game about an hour after the race ended.

"What can I say?" Dominguez said. "They're all good. There was a lot of people watching the race and I had a lot of people yelling my name."

Race organizers were impressed with the crowds in St. Louis, as well as the rest of the tour stops, in the wake of doping scandals that have scarred the sport.

"We needed a boost in a big way," said Sean Petty, chief operation officer for USA Cycling. "It exceeded any expectations we could have possibly had."

"It really helps us showcase our state and our city not only the great things going on here, but the fact that we really can accommodate big events like that in a way that can be successful and fun for, not only for the cyclists themselves, but also for the spectators," added St. Loius Mayor Francis Slay.

A four-man breakaway opened a gap of 2:15 after the third of seven 10-mile circuits that grew to 4 minutes before the Discovery Channel team, which sat at the front of the main peloton and controlled the tempo, started the charge.

The final member of the break, Bernard Van Ulden of Navigators Insurance, was reeled in between the third and fourth mile of the final circuit.

This was also the final race for the Discovery Channel's team. They're disbanding because they couldn't find a sponsor.