Today’s stage 5 in the Tour of Missouri was as mellow as yesterday’s stage was crazy fast. The peloton was content to let the one significant break of the day - a 12-man group with no GC contenders - dangle off the front and scoop up the day’s intermediate sprint and KOM points.

With several other teams doing the chasing today, Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O had the opportunity to sit in most of the day, only going to the front for the finishing circuits in Jefferson City. Tyler Farrar came in 7th on the hard 300-meter uphill finish. Christian Vande Velde also made the front group, maintaining his 18″ gap on second place Michael Rogers of Columbia and increasing his lead on third place Svein Tuft by 5″.

“Today was a perfect combination for us. We didn’t do 1/10th the work that we did yesterday. So we’ll be more refreshed and ready to defend the jersey tomorrow,” said Christian. “Though we do expect to see a few sparks tomorrow from a number of teams.”

Team Garmin-Chipotle stage results
1. Boy van Poppel 3h48′42″
7. Tyler Farrar +00″
19. Christian Vande Velde +00″
24. Tom Danielson +05″
60. Danny Pate +13″
68. Daniel Holloway +22″
80. Dave Zabriskie +56″
81. Steven Cozza +59″

Team Garmin-Chipotle GC
1. Christian Vande Velde 15h53′55″
2. Michael Rogers +18″
3. Svein Tuft +48″
5. Tom Danielson +1′32″
24. Danny Pate +19′28″
28. David Zabriskie +20′08″
33. Steven Cozza +20′41″
37. Tyler Farrar +21′14″
47. Daniel Holloway +22′39″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O worked to fight off relentless attacks from Team Columbia today on a crazy fast stage from Lebanon to Rolla, Missouri. Race leader Christian Vande Velde (above left and below) kept the Argyle Armada moving, eventually joining a breakaway of 20 along with Tom Danielson (above right) in the final run in to […]

More than making up for his disappointing performance at the US Pro national time trial championships in August, Christian Vande Velde dug deep to win today’s severely undulating time trial course around Branson, MO. Vande Velde’s victory today put him in the yellow Missouri Tourism race leader’s jersey.
Rolling through the foothills of the Ozarks, the […]

Tyler Farrar, Tom Danielson, Danny Pate and Blake Caldwell lead the Argyle Armada during stage 2 of the Tour of Missouri.
As the peloton rolled to the start line today, it was obvious that most of us were wishing for a few more hours of sleep. With a two-hour transfer from Kansas City to the start […]

Location:
Clinton & Springfield, Missouri, United States

Overview:Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O dominated the 2008 Tour of Missouri. Christian Vande Velde took over the leader’s jersey by winning the stage 3 individual time trial, and never looked back. With the support of the well-tuned Argyle Armada, he finished the seven-day stage race the overall champion.
While teammate Tyler Farrar […]

For the third year in a row, David Zabriskie proved his talents as the American super hero of time trials by winning the US Pro individual time trial. This will mark his fourth title as US national time trial champion with his first win coming in 2004. The ride was
The ride marked a huge […]

WGN Radio in Chicago interviews Christian Vande Velde on his Olympic experience in Beijing, life in Girona, Spain and the Schleck brothers.

Christian Vande Velde checks in from China with some answers to a few of your burning questions on the Olympic road race:
What were the conditions like - hot and massively humid? I read that they had cooling jets or something along the course.
CVV: Cooling jets? Hell no! They had some shower heads that reminded […]