Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team 2007

Ivan Dominguez easily scores his second stage win of the race.
St. Louis, Mo. - Ivan Dominguez stamped his name on the final stage of the Tour of Missouri by impressively sprinting to victory Sunday on the final stage in St. Louis.

Dominguez, working with the help of only three teammates, scored his second stage win of the race. On Tuesday, he won the opening stage in Kansas City.

Less than a half-hour before the start of the final stage of the Tour of Missouri Sunday afternoon, Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team Director Harm Jansen gathered what remained of his original eight-man squad for the six-day, six-stage race.

Seated in the team’s bus just a few blocks from the start line were the three riders who would be charged with helping Ivan Dominguez get to the finish line first in the 74-mile (119 km) race that comprised seven circuits of a loop through the streets of downtown St. Louis.
There was Chris Wherry, the team’s captain whose focus has shifted from being a powerful stage rider and overall contender to that of top lead-out man following season-ending injuries to Henk Vogels, Ivan Stevic and Caleb Manion.

Next to him sat Heath Blackgrove, the tough, quiet super domestique whose season started all the way back on Jan. 1 in his home country of New Zealand. The toll of a long season showed on Blackgrove’s face, as he hardly managed a smile when team bus driver Paul Davi greeted him.

The only other engine on the Toyota-United lead-out train this day would be the most unlikely of suspects. Normally a climbing specialist, Justin England would be asked to drive the pace hard enough to keep the other 98 riders in the race behind him.

“Remember, we’re not equipped to be able to do any work today until the very end,” Team Director Harm Jansen said to the four. “Remain patient. Our time will come.”

Each of the four nodded in agreement as they made last-minute adjustments to their race radios, helmets and sunglasses.
Integral to Jansen’s plan would be for the pack to be together as it neared the finish. Fortunately, that is exactly what happened, thanks to the chasing efforts of several teams – with the 150-pound England helping out in the rotation.

“I tried to take longer pulls since there was only one of me and everyone else helping with the chase had three or four riders,” England said.

The patience that Jansen preached was never more evident than in the final three miles. Despite the frenetic, 36 miles-an-hour pace at the head of the peloton, Wherry, Blackgrove and Dominguez remained calm, riding at the back of the field.

“We knew when our time to go to work would come,” Blackgrove said. “It was just a matter of waiting.”

That time came inside the final mile. Blackgrove helped a fast-fading England marshal Wherry and Dominguez up the side of the pack. With 1,000 meters to go, Wherry took Dominguez toward the front, then sprinted out of the last turn like he was going for the win himself.

From there, Dominguez flew by to finish it off.

“It was just like we drew up,” Blackgrove said afterwards, grinning. “Pretty simple, eh?”