Long break earns White Most Aggressive jersey for Stage 4 of Missouri

Jefferson City, MO - Brad White lived up to his reputation as one of the most aggressive riders in the pro peloton during Stage 4 of the Tour of Missouri. White earned the Drury Hotels Most Aggressive Rider jersey for stage after instigating and helping to drive the main break of the day. After Floyd Landis got the attacks started from the gun while rolling out of the start town of St. James, it took the first 32 of the 175 kilometers of the stage before the peloton was content to let White and three companions up the road.

“We were going pretty hard when they finally let us go,” White said. The four riders, including Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly), Michael Creed (Team Type 1) and Jeff Louder (BMC), quickly opened a gap that at it’s largest reach around three minutes. From there, White said they worked well together, but also took advantage of time gap reports to measure their efforts.

“When the peloton would start to bring the gap down, we’d start going harder again to get it out,” White said. “All of us were working well together and we really didn’t have to kill ourselves until the last 40 km.”

With overall classification contender Louder in the break with them, White said, “we had a feeling the break wouldn’t stick until the end. And then when we heard that Cervelo, Saxo, Garmin and Liquigas were all putting guys on the front to chase us, we knew the move was coming back.”

Even so, after Creed was dropped, White and his remaining break-mates buried themselves to make it has hard as possible to make the catch, partly in the hope that when they reached the more technical finishing circuits in state capitol of Jefferson City, they might have a bit better chance of staying away. However, the horsepower at the head of the peloton, coupled with the more than 100 km effort in the heat and humidity out front took its toll, and the break was caught with 15 km to go.

After a steady barrage of attacks, the stage came down to a power sprint up the Capitol Wall, with Saxo Bank’s J.J. Haedo taking the win and the leader’s jersey from Cervelo’s Thor Hushovd.

“It was a hard effort, but it was really good to be out there giving it a go, and it was nice to come away from the effort with the Most Aggressive jersey,” White said. “It also gave Chris (Baldwin) and Rory (Sutherland) a good chill day, so they should be good for the time trial tomorrow.”

That individual time trial in Sedalia Friday will cover roughly 31 km, and is likely to determine the top of the general classification.
Notes

White’s Most Aggressive jersey for Stage 4 of the Tour of Missouri - his last race of the season - bookended the season for him. He also earned the Most Courageous Rider jersey in his first race of the season, for his efforts in the break during Stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California.

Photo: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us