With his team keeping breakaways in check during Stage Seven, Team Garmin-Slipstream’s David Zabriskie was able to easily wheel his way to victory as the 2009 Tour of Missouri champion on Sept. 13.

The Stage Seven win went to Martin Gilbert of Team Planet Energy who narrowly crossed over the finish line ahead of Andrew Pinfold of Team OUCH and Thor Hushovd of Team Cervelo in a time of two hours, 33 minutes, and 11 seconds. The peloton finished three seconds behind the homestretch sprinters; however, no rider was able to close the 30 second gap that Zabriskie had put on the field in the overall standings after his individual time trial victory, enabling him to glide under the finish line as the new champion.

Riders kept a brisk pace through much of Stage Seven, a 72 mile circuit race which wound its way through the streets of downtown Kansas City, Mo. 10 laps through the course kept Kansas City’s devout fans entertained as they packed both sides of the street to cheer on the athletes and eventual winners.

While Zabriskie went nearly unchallenged in clinching the yellow jersey as the general classification winner, several battles went on during Sunday’s race for the other jersey competitions. Hushovd held off threats from opponents to officially claim the green sprints jersey, the jersey he’s worn through the majority of the week’s races. Dario Cataldo of Team QuickStep put on his white best young-rider jersey for the final time in the post race ceremony, and Moises Aldape of Team Type One wrapped up his bid for the climbers jersey. Team Saxo Bank secured title as the top team in the tour.

Zabriskie’s overall winning time for the 2009 Tour of Missouri was 22 hours, 26 minutes, and 56 seconds over a total of 600 miles. 

By Tour of Missouri Correspondent Tyler Peeples