Tour of MO Final Stage--St. Louis photos

Despite tropical storm Ike hitting St. Louis Sunday morning, by noon the weather had cleared up, the start line was in place, and the race went off at 2:00 PM as scheduled.

The race was held a course slightly shortened because of fallen trees across the portion of the planned course through Forest Park. Of course, that set off a chain reaction of re-configuring the course and then re-assigning volunteer course marshals along the altered route. The good news is that even with the weather, many basements flooded, power outages, roads flooded and trees down across the metro area, over 320 of the 350 scheduled volunteers were able to make it for the race.

The start line and hospitality crews ran into serious problems with strong winds and rain--the large hospitality/VIP tent was reported to be bucking like a bronco in the wind, raising in waves of up to four feet high, despite the large concrete blocks used to weigh down the legs.

Once the the rain stopped about noon, however, it was quite a beautiful afternoon and a fine conclusion to the 2008 Tour.

A two-man breakaway kept away for a while but in the end the field came together and the sprint was won by Francesco Chicchi, followed by Mark Cavendish, Tyler Farrar, Ivan Dominguez, and Brad Huff.

Photos from Stage 7 are here; view the photos as a slideshow here. (Photo upload is not complete--check back in a day or so for the rest.)

Selected photos below: