Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team 2007

Dominguez said he surprised himself with his win in Kansas City.
Kansas City, Mo. – He may have been the favorite to win the first-ever stage of the Tour of Missouri, but Ivan Dominguez wasn’t feeling like a winner with fewer than five miles left in Tuesday’s 85-mile (137 km) road race that started and finished in Kansas City, Mo.

“I was not expecting to see that hill on the back end of the circuit,” Dominguez said. “I was hurting every time we went up.”

So with his legs badly cramping and only two of his seven teammates still in position to help him, Dominguez’s chances didn’t look good on the last of three laps around a circuit through Kansas City’s famous Plaza district.

That all changed, though, when the peloton swung onto the finishing straight in front of thousands of fans on a sun-splashed afternoon.

“Coming out of the last corner I was in 40th wheel and I did not expect to pass so many guys so fast,” Dominguez said. “I realized it was a long way but I said to myself, ‘I’m going to try!’ ”

With 250 meters to go, Dominguez was still 20 riders back, but moving up fast. He went from the right side of the road, across to the center, then attacked on the left to earn his 13th victory of the season, the team’s 35th this year and the 90th win overall for Toyota-United in its second season.

Earlier in the stage, a five-man breakaway gained a nearly six minutes’ lead. But the chasing efforts of several squads, including the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, Toyota-United and Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle brought the gap down to fewer than two minutes with about 15 miles remaining.

“I buried four guys off the back of the leading group,” Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said. “One guy has a knee (problem), the other couldn’t breathe. Two other guys were buried because they had worked so hard helping chase.”