About the only certainty going into the final stage of the Tour of Missouri was that barring major disaster, Christian VandeVelde would take the yellow jersey as overall winner.

Major disaster hit, but VandeVelde still proved a lock.

The remnants of Hurricane Ike forced race officials to shorten the circuit and vendors to back out of the Health and Wellness expo downtown. But VandeVelde finished safely tucked in the pack of 93 riders, sealing his victory.

"I think my smile says it all," said VandeVelde, 32, a native of suburban Chicago. He said the week of racing that started in St. Joseph, "has been hard. We were ready to get killed, but it turned out great."

VandeVelde took the lead Wednesday in Branson, winning the time trial and taking a 21-second lead over Australian Michael Rogers of Team Columbia.

"I didn't come expecting to win the time trial, but I rode it early that morning, and I loved it," said VandeVelde, who finished fifth overall in the Tour de France on the strength of his climbing and time trials. "It was a beautiful course."

Over the next three days, Columbia tried to take the lead by attacking Garmin in the hope of isolating VandeVelde from his teammates and launching Rogers or George Hincapie, last year's winner, into the lead. Rogers earned 3 seconds back but finished second. Svein Tuft of Symmetrics was third, and Hincapie fourth.

"It was a hard race," Rogers said. "Christian and his team were strong. We threw everything we had at them, and they held their ground."

Organizers said they never considered canceling Sunday's stage but knew they had to make alterations because high winds blew over some of the tents in the start area and standing water and debris blocked some of the roads in Forest Park. The expo was held with vendors who put up tents at their own risk, and the portion of the route through Forest Park was eliminated.

"You can't have tents flying around," said Chris Aronhalt of Medalist Sports, the race organizer who works in partnership with state officials. "We were disappointed that we couldn't have the expo."

The weather also appeared to affect attendance. Fans who attended last year thought the crowd was smaller Sunday, when Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder reported that the Missouri Highway Patrol estimated the crowd at 55,000.

"We almost turned around ourselves," said Deb Reimer of Effingham, Ill. "But how often do you get a chance to see athletes like this? They travel all around the world, and then they come to us. You can't pass up the chance."

Riders completed a circuit of five 10.6-mile laps, shorted from 14 miles, that started and ended at 13th and Market streets. Kirk O'Bee of HealthNet and Jeremy Powers of Jelly Belly broke away and built a lead of more than three minutes on the third lap before Columbia formed a pace line and pushed the tempo to reel in the break and try setting up another win for Mark Cavendish.

"We saw the head wind and uphill finish, so I told the guys to leave me a little late," Cavendish said. Columbia mistimed the lead out, though, leaving Cavendish without a teammate 200 meters from the line, rather than 100. Francesco Chicchi of the Italian Liquigas team started his sprint later and passed Cavendish, winning the stage in 1 hour, 57 minutes, 6 seconds. Through an interpreter, Chicchi said he was fortunate to beat Cavendish.

"It's upsetting after all the work the guys did," said Cavendish, who won three of the seven stages in Missouri and has 17 victories this season. He called Chicchi "tremendously fast. That's the first time someone passed me since March."

After a one-day race next week in Washington, VandeVelde's season will be over. He'll return to his home near Chicago, he said, "play some golf and relax."

Rogers and Cavendish, seated on VandeVelde's right and left, respectively, during a post-race media conference, will compete in the World Championships later this month in Varese, Italy.

"These guys on both sides of me, I don't envy," VandeVelde said.

knelson@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8233