COLUMBIA, Mo. — Luciano Pagliarini is used to being a fish out of water. He's one of two Brazilians riding on the elite European circuit, known as the Pro Tour. He rides for Prodir-Saunier Duval, a Spanish team.

But he felt right at home on the hills of central Missouri, powering to a sprint win Friday in Stage 4 of the Tour of Missouri. He finished in 5 hours, 7 minutes, 52 seconds, just ahead of Andrew Pinfold of the Symmetrics Cycling Team and Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez. Overall leader George Hincapie finished 29th, tucked safely in the main field, and kept the yellow jersey.

After apologizing for his lack of proficiency in English, Pagliarini said, "I'm so happy to win here, for my first race win in America."

He competed in the Tour de Georgia in 2006 and in the U.S. championship in Philadelphia in 2005, when the race was open to all riders. He felt so comfortable with the course Friday, 133 miles of undulating hills from Lebanon to Columbia, that he predicted a win at the start. The stage is typical in length for a European stage race, quite long for a race in the States, especially with less than six weeks remaining in the season.

"I believe I was in good condition," Pagliarini said. "I could see that this stage was good for me. My team works very well. I only did the final work."

Pagliarini, 29, stayed in the peloton during a breakaway of 10 riders that took off 50 miles into the stage. The breakaway built a lead of 4:45 about 100 miles into the race before a steady headwind of 17 mph and the undulations began to take their toll. The peloton sucked up the breakaway about three miles before the finishing line.

"You spend a lot more time climbing then descending," said Jeff Louder, a member of the breakaway, who finished in a small group 3 minutes behind the peloton. "Then there's the headwind. When you're descending, you're not coasting. It's a lot harder for 10 guys to ride into that for so long than it is for the peloton."

With the break in the fold, the race came down to the sprinters. Team Slipstream-Chipotle tried to set up Missouri native Brad Huff with about a mile and a half to go, too early. Near the final turn, with 300 meters to go, Pagliarini said, he was "very, very on the back. I saw a little groove on the right. It was the right moment."

He hit the gap with a burst, then eluded Pinfold and Dominguez, winner of the opening stage in Kansas City. Pagliarini had hoped to contest the first stage but arrived from Europe the day before and was struggling to adjust to the time difference.

"This is the first stage that I felt good," he said. "Now, I am on American time."

He also seemed quite comfortable with the Tour of Missouri, which he compared to the one-week stage races on the Pro Tour.

"This is a very, very good race," he said. "This is a big race, like Paris-Nice, the Tour of Switzerland and Tirreno-Adriatico. It's like a little Tour de France."

Hincapie maintained his 1:40 lead over Will Frischkorn of Slipstream-Chipotle and 2:22 over Pagliarini's teammate, David Canada. Though Hincapie said about 10 riders still had a chance to overtake him, he felt that his Discovery teammates could control the pace and chase any dangerous breakaways on the ride today from Jefferson City to St. Charles.

"The team is great," said Hincapie, who will leave the disbanding Discovery to join T-Mobile next year. "I have the Tour de France champion bringing me water bottles, not a normal thing. It's a great honor to lead these guys. I would love to finish off with a win."