JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (August 26, 2008) – Team Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian Vandevelde, the fifth-place finisher overall and top American at this year’s Tour de France, and 2008 Tour of Switzerland champion Roman Kreuzinger of team Liquigas highlight the names released for the upcoming Tour of Missouri, a world-class 623-mile race through the Show Me State, September 8-14.
The 32-year-old Vandevelde, one American cycling’s big revelations in the post-Lance Armstrong era, surprised the world by finishing less than a couple minutes out of the podium at this year’s Tour de France. Known as a top trialist most of his career, Vandevelde showed amazing climbing skills and has matured into one of the world’s best all-around riders. Earlier in the year, he finished 3rd overall in the Amgen Tour of California and last year finished second overall at the Tour de Georgia, two of North America’s biggest races. He finished 17th overall in the road race at the Olympic Games two weeks ago.
Kreuzinger, the 22-year-old phenom from the Czech Reuplic finished 13th overall at this year’s Tour de France and second in the Best Young Rider competition for cyclists under the age of 25. His teammate Vincenzo Nibali finished third in the Best Young Rider competition at the Tour de France, will join him on the Liquigas squad inMissouri. Nibali recently was selected to represent his native Italy at the Beijing Games and is recognized as one of the sport’s young superstars with Kreuzinger.
Vandevelde will be joined by a very strong Garmin-Chipotle team that includes U.S. Olympic team member David Zabriskie and Tour de France team member Danny Pate. Zabriskie is the only American to ever win a stage of all three of professional cycling’s Grand Tours (France, Italy, and Spain), and is a two-time time trial champion and former Tour de France race leader. Pate won Stage 5 of last year’s Tour of Missouri in dramatic fashion, breaking away to win into St. Charles. Pate is a former Under-23 World Champion.
“We will be back to win,” said Jonathan Vaughters, director of the Garmin-Chipotle team. “This is not an end-of-the-season fun race for us. This is a serious objective for our team. It’s a major event now.”
Garmin’s team is bolstered by Will Frischkorn, who finished second overall at last year’s Tour of Missouri and narrowly missed winning a Tour de France stage last month. Steven Cozza, last year the Best Young Rider at the Tour of Missouri, will return and be joined by U.S. Olympian in track Mike Friedman, America’s top young sprinter Tyler Farrar, who led this year’s Tour de Georgia for a day, and upstart Jason Donald, a former NCAA Division II track All American turned professional cyclist.
“No doubt, Garmin Chipotle’s team is stacked,” said race director Jim Birrell. “They are bringing the best Americans on their team. Along with Team Columbia and Liquigas, they are definitely a team to watch.”
Rosters for HealthNet presented by MAXXIS, Germany’s Sparkasse, Mexico’s Tecos, and Canada’s Symmetrics were also announced.
America’s top team the past four seasons, HealthNet presented by MAXXIS will be led by Rory Sutherland, this year’s top-ranked rider on the American professional circuit. Sprinters Karl Menzies Frank Pipp, who almost beat George Hincapie in the Stage 2 sprint into Springfield in last year’s Tour of Missouri, and John Murphy, along with Tim Johnson, the current U.S. National Champion in cyclocross, Kyle Gritters, Kirk O’Bee and Phil Zijacek help round out the squad.
Canada’s top team Symmetrics will be led by Svein Tuft, who recently competed at the Beijing Olympics and earlier this summer won Canada’s top stage race. Other notables are sprinters Andrew Pinfold, second to Ivan Dominquez at Stage 1 in Kansas City, Canada’s top young rider Cameron Evans, and toughman Eric Wohlberg.
Mexico’s top club Tecos provided last year’s Tour of Missouri with a lot of excitement and aggressive racing. The team will feature a combination of climbers and roulers, including Bernardo Colex, who won a stage and finished second in Canada’s top stage race this summer.
Sparkasse, a top club team from Germany, features several very fast sprinters, including Eric Baumann and Sebastian Frey, who was featured in several sprints at last year’s race.