Jamie Wynne writes about the Tour of Missouri time trial:

Standing on the side of the road in Branson for the time trial, I got to see the racers going both down the hill at lightening speeds and then climb back up. While speed is intoxicating and gets all the glory, the pace at which they climbed I found to be even more exciting.

The focus of the racers going up the hill was truly inspiring and the chance to get literally within inches of them to take a photo all whilst they are grinding out tons of wattage was better than Christmas. And like Christmas, now that the Tour of Missouri is over, the post holiday depression has set in. The countdown is on until next year.

Tom Peterson in the white Best Young Rider jersey joins Pat McCarty in the pink King of the Mountains jersey for the start of the final stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Chihuahua.

Race report from DS Johnny Weltz

Everything today was pretty good until 4 km to go when Jason went down pretty hard. He managed to finish the race, but we had to go for x-rays of his hip. After talking a bit with the chief commissaire, they gave him the same time as the bunch. So he got to keep his 8th place on GC.

The rest stayed the same. Pat took the mountains jersey, Tom won the Best Young Rider classification, we had two riders in the top ten overall and the team finished 4th overall.

All in all, a great week for us here in Chihuahua!

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Javier Benitez Pomares 1h55′17″
16. Christophe Laurent +02″
18. Tom Peterson +02″
56. Caleb Fairly +02″
62. Pat McCarty +12″
94. Jason Donald +2′02″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Francisco Mancebo 21h14′12″
4. Tom Peterson +2′02″
8. Jason Donald +2′40″
22. Pat McCarty +6′49″
26. Christophe Laurent +11′13″
83. Caleb Fairly +1h05′27″

Mountains Classification
1. Pat McCarty 47 pts
2. Byron Guama 33 pts
3. David Vaz 30 pts

Best Young Classification
1. Tom Peterson
2. Javier Etxarri
3. Sergio Dominguez

Special race report from DS Matt White

Today at Paris-Tours we witnessed two very special things. One, Tyler Farrar (right) showed he is ready to step up to the top line of world sprinters. And then, we had the first man to race Paris-Tours in a skin suit?! Who else but our TT specialist, Captain America Dave Z (lower left).

Tyler has shown in years past and this year with us that he is a very capable sprinter. He has had a stellar summer and has kept the ball rolling all the way to the end. But winning the bunch sprint for 5th place a mere fours seconds back, and in front of the cream of the sprinting fraternity, shows he has made the made the next big step. Paris-Tours is a real classic and not any old euro race! He should go into the winter break with a lot of confidence in his future.

From the start today, the team rode as planned with Lucas riding super to make the first break that stuck. They had a 4-minute gap when the skinned-suited up Dave Z made his move. Not an orthodox move, but hey it’s Z! After Z bridged, the 5 riders went out to 11 minutes and spent 200-plus kilometers away !

The other boys did all they could for Tyler all day! Very, very solid performance.

Above Mike Friedman (left) and Christian Meier (middle) worked to keep Tyler Farrar (tucked in) in contention throughout the 252 kilometer race.

Though the top four places today in Paris-Tours went to a late breakaway that held off the swarming peloton, Tyler Farrar won the bigger battle. Powered by The Argyle, Tyler took the field sprint and finished 5th in front of top sprinters McEwen, Zabel, Bennati and Boonen.

“The guys really turned themselves inside out for me today,” said Tyler. “And considering that this was the first Paris-Tours for all of them, they really were fantastic.”

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O animated today’s 252-kilometer race from the start. Just 7 km into the race, Lucas Euser (right) and three others broke away and quickly built up a gap. Thirty kilometers in to the race, David Zabriskie attacked and joined the Euser group. The break of five built their gap up to more than 11 minutes before the peloton started to react. With 25 km to go in the race, the peloton caught the five escapees. Shortly after that, the decisive break of four went.

As the peloton cranked up the chase in the final kilometers, the Argyle Armada rallied around Tyler to make sure he was in position when the race hit the famous Avenue de Grammont. Unfortunately, the breakaway had just enough of a gap when the race hit the final meters that they won with a four-second gap on the main field.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Results
1. Philippe Gilbert 5h47′33″
5. Tyler Farrar +04″
69. Steven Cozza +1′43″
83. Tom Danielson +1′43″
115. Christian Meier +1′43″
127. Mike Friedman +1′43″
147. Lucas Euser +2′58″
160. David Zabriskie +7′15″
166. Martijn Maaskant +7′25″

Brief race report from DS Johnny Weltz

Christophe Laurent (above) was in the main breakaway all day. The group held their lead all the way to the finish in Chihuahua and Christophe finished 7th on the stage. The Mexican national champion won the stage and the GC stayed the same.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O still has two riders in the top 10 overall along with the Best Young and Mountains leaders’ jerseys. Not bad for our small crew!

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Luis Fernando Macias Hernandez 2h34′23″
7. Christophe Laurent +00″
20. Tom Peterson +34″
22. Jason Donald +34″
29. Caleb Fairly +34″
53. Pat McCarty +34″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Francisco Mancebo 19h18′53″
4. Tom Peterson +2′02″
8. Jason Donald +2′40″
23. Pat McCarty +6′39″
26. Christophe Laurent +11′13″
84. Caleb Fairly +1h05′27″

Mountains Classification
1. Pat McCarty 47 pts
2. Byron Guama 33 pts
3. David Vaz 30 pts

Best Young Classification
1. Tom Peterson
2. Javier Etxarri
3. Sergio Dominguez

As one of their top picks for tomorrow’s 102nd edition of Paris-Tours, VeloNews taps Tyler Farrar as a favorite for the “sprinters’ classic.”

From the article: “Tyler Farrar, who held the race leader’s jersey at Franco-Belge last week, will be looking to capitalize on his strong late-season strength for Garmin-Chipotle.”

Chihuahua Stages 4 & 5

The time trial Thursday was good and bad. Bad first. Pat (right in pink KOM jersey) started to have stomach trouble in the morning, and unfortunately, it got worse as he raced. He was still able to move up in GC even after a bad morning. Tom didn’t have the legs he was hoping for, but neither did half the race as the course was demanding. So, ultimately, his ride was better than expected. I had a good day - felt good in the warm up and was relaxed enough to hold my position on GC. All in all - even after gazing incredulously at a couple of heinous truck wrecks in the canyon - it was a good showing.

Yesterday we started out well enough. Pat had a rough night and wasn’t able to keep any nutrients down, so he suffered a bit in the first 30 km with all the attacks. I covered the most dangerous guy for him on the only real mountain top (pictured above right). Then after that we settled in for a day in the group.

It was the last day for the real mountains. And though we missed the inspirational beauty that we’d seen in the time trial and the third stage, the benefit of getting out of the mountains was that we were back on smooth roads. This race is known for rough roads and you don’t realize how bad they are till you get back on some normal pavement!

Yesterday’s stage ended well. I moved up to 8th on GC because one of the American Beef riders who was ahead of me on GC just sat up for no reason in the last 5 km. The roads are better, the food has improved, we hold two out of the four jerseys and it’s all downhill - literally - to Chihuahua. We are happy campers! Thanks for reading.

Though relatively uneventful, today’s stage 5 of the Vuelta a Chihuahua did include some breakaway efforts from Christophe Laurent and Caleb Fairly (above). Ultimately though, the rolling to downhill stage was dominated by the sprinters and came down to a mass finale. The only small change to the results include Jason Donald’s move from 9th to 8th on GC.

*Stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes report from Jason!*

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Javier Benitez 3h36′52″
23. Jason Donald +00″
26. Tom Peterson +00″
41. Christophe Laurent +00″
68. Caleb Fairly +08″
69. Pat McCarty +08″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Francisco Mancebo 16h43′56″
4. Tom Peterson +2′02″
8. Jason Donald +2′40″
23. Pat McCarty +6′39″
28. Christophe Laurent +11′47″
85. Caleb Fairly +1h05′27″

Mountains Classification
1. Pat McCarty 47 pts
2. Byron Guama 33 pts
3. David Vaz 30 pts

Best Young Classification
1. Tom Peterson
2. Javier Etxarri
3. Sergio Dominguez