Springfield, MO - Frank Pipp of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented Maxxis sprinted to 2nd place in Stage 2 of the Tour of Missouri Wednesday, narrowly missing out on the win to George Hincapie (Discovery Channel).

The stage came down to a contest among 12 riders who rode from the peloton away with 150 km still left to race, and eventually built up a lead that reached 16 minutes.

"The break worked together really well, very smoothly," Pipp said. "Everyone was taking pulls for the most part, though at different times guys were skipping a pull here and there, including me."

When it became apparent that the break would be away for the duration, everyone in it knew that the final kilometers would be decisive, with plenty of attacks.

"I was happy to be in the break today going for the win," Pipp said. "When we came down to the end, George had to do a lot of the covering of attacks himself. He had all the pressure on him, and he still came through with the win, so good on him."

Georgia on my mind

Race director Jim Birrell could be excused for humming more than a few bars of the Ray Charles classic. As with the second stage of the Tour de Georgia, when a similar-sized break rolled off the front and eventually put 29 minutes into a disinterested peloton, the decisive 12-man break today pretty much determined the top end of the general classification.

"It's unfortunate for the race organization, and the guys who wanted to race for the GC," Pipp noted. "I'm bummed for Nathan (O'Neill), because he prepared well for this race."

When the break first went, its success wasn't a foregone conclusion. However, Pipp said, "with who we had in the break, I had a feeling when we went it could stay away."

For the first few kilometers, the break was holding a steady gap of 30 seconds. "We figured somebody was on the front chasing hard, because we were going 60 km per hour and we weren't really getting anywhere," Pipp said. "But that wasn't for too long."

That somebody was the Toyota-United team of race leader Ivan Dominguez. However, without receiving much help from the other three teams no represented in the break and a roster depleted by injury and effort from delivering Dominguez to the line in Stage 1, T-U pulled the plug on the chase.

"When the gap started going up quickly, we knew there was a good chance it would stay away," Pipp said.

Health Net Presented by Maxxis directeur sportif Jeff Corbett said afterward that "we knew something like this could happen. It's a new race, it's late in the season, so a lot of guys are tired physically and mentally, and the race is harder than most people anticipated. That's why we had Jeff (Louder) and Nathan actually covering moves early."

Corbett noted that Thursday's time trial course in Branson is more of a strong man's course than one for pure time trialists. "The course suits a rider like Frank well," he said. "We have a really strong guy up there who's been riding well the past few weeks. We feel like he can end up on the podium in St. Louis."

For now, Pipp is focusing on the next stage. "I'm in the GC position for the team," Pipp said, "though maybe it would've been better with Nathan or Rory (Sutherland) or Jeff (Louder) up the road instead. But I'm gonna do my best in the time trial tomorrow and see how things come out."

Notes

Pipp's 2nd place stage finished moved him up to 3rd overall behind stage winner Hincapie and Dominique Rollin (KodakGallery-Sierra Nevada), who finished 3rd on the stage, but picked up bonus time in the intermediate sprints.

In one of the stranger wrecks in a race of late, St. Louis native Dan Schmatz (BMC) went down just 7 km into the stage after hitting an armadillo. He had to abandon due to injuries.