Team Columbia is running short on time in its quest to regain the yellow jersey at the Tour of Missouri.

Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian VandeVelde took the yellow Wednesday by winning the 18-mile uphill time trial in Branson, and Columbia set a blistering pace and attacked relentlessly Thursday in an effort to weaken Garmin enough for second-place Michael Rogers to take time back from VandeVelde.

Garmin bent but didn’t break on the 95-mile stage from Lebanon to Rolla in which 75 percent of the field got dropped. Garmin’s Tom Danielson survived the split in the field, and tho Columbia had four riders in the elite selection and Rogers gained 3 seconds in an intermediate sprint, Danielson kept VandeVelde out of the wind and fresh.

Friday’s 105-mile stage lacked the intensity and the drama of Thursday’s stage, with a 12-man break getting away and neither Columbia nor Garmin having to lead the chase. Columbia sprinter Mark Cavendish was in the break so Columbia wasn’t going to chase anyway. And Garmin was content to ride behind Sparkasse, which led the chase for team leader Eric Baumann, whose green sprinter’s jersey was in jeopardy with Cavendish up the road.

Cavendish did reclaim the green jersey, with his solo effort benefiting himself with intermediate spint points but also benefiting the team with a relatively easy day to rest and recuperate for perhaps another full-on assault of Garmin on Saturday in Stage 6

There could be plenty of fireworks on the up-and-down, hilly stage from Hermann to St. Charles.

“I don’t imagine they’ll make it easy for us,” Garmin-Chipotle’s Tyler Farrar said.

Both teams are riding short-handed. Garmin-Chipotle lost Blake Caldwell to a broken collarbone and hip in a crash in the time trial. And Columbia lost John Devine and Craig Lewis in a crash in Stage 4, with Devine suffering a broken collarbone.

“They still have plenty of strong riders,” Farrar said. “The race is far from over.”

With a relatively flat finishing stage Sunday in St. Louis, Stage 6 is probably Columbia’s last chance to go after the yellow. VandeVelde leads Rogers by 18 seconds, a lead that would be insurmountable for any lesser team than Columbia.

“It’ll be difficult, but if we see an opportunity, we’ll take it,” Columbia’s George Hincapie said.

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