Zabriskie wins Tour of Missouri and 2009 Pro Tour
September 15, 2009
David Zabriskie (Salt Lake City, Utah/Garmin-Slipstream) used his overall and stage five time trial wins at the Tour of Missouri to earn the third USA Cycling Professional Tour overall individual title. Zabriskie wrapped up the season-long title with 342 points over runner-up and 2007 champion Levi Leipheimer (Santa Rosa, Calif/Astana) who finished the season with 244 points. Click here for complete results from the Tour of Missouri.
In the team standings, the two North American based UCI Pro Tour squads finished neck-in-neck with Team Columbia-High Road edging Zabriskie’s Garmin-Slipstream squad 469-408.
Volodymyr Starchyk (UKR/Amore & Vita) gathered both the overall and road race victories at the Univest Grand Prix over the weekend. The event, in Souderton, Pa., also took place over the weekend and helped wrap-up the 2009 USA Cycling Pro Tour. Click here for complete results from the Univest Grand Prix.
Just as with Christian Vande Velde (Lemont, Ill./Garmin-Slipstream) in 2008, the Tour of Missouri’s general classification winner once again took the overall Pro Tour title as Zabriskie used the final race’s points to surge past Leipheimer. Zabriskie also won the USA Cycling Professional Time Trial title and finished second overall to Leipheimer in the Pro Tour’s opening contest, the Tour of California.
Having just finished its third year, the USA Cycling Professional Tour consists of all the internationally-sanctioned events in the United States and USA Cycling’s three professional road championships in the disciplines of criterium, time trial and road racing. After eight events in 2009, Vande Velde and Leipheimer were by far the most dominant in these races, followed by Thor Hushovd (NOR/Cervelo), George Hincapie (Greenville, S.C./Columbia-High Road), Mark Cavendish (GBR/Columbia-High Road) and Tom Zirbel (Boulder, Colo./Bisssell).
The final 2009 USA Cycling Professional Tour standings are as follows:
Individual Standings
1. David Zabriskie (Salt Lake City, Utah/Garmin-Chipotle) 342
2. Levi Leipheimer (Santa Rosa, Calif./Astana) 244
3. Thor Hushovd (NOR/Cervelo) 127
4. George Hincapie (Greenville, S.C./Columbia-High Road) 125
5. Mark Cavendish (GBR/Columbia-High Road) 112
5. Tom Zirbel (Boulder, Colo./Bisssell) 112
Team Standings
1. Team Columbia-High Road 469
2. Garmin-Slipstream 408
3. Astana 290
4. Team Saxo Bank 248
5. Kelly Benefit Strategies 217
