ST. LOUIS | The Tour Missouri closed out Sunday with one big surprise, an overall result everyone expected and a promise from officials to make the cross-state bike race a regular staple of Missouri sports in the years to come.

As expected, Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde, who entered the day with a nearly insurmountable lead of 18 seconds, was the overall winner at 21 hours, 23 minutes and 26 seconds.

Columbia’s Michael Rogers finished 18 seconds behind him. Symmetrics Cycling Team’s Svein Tuft was third at 48 seconds behind.

But Mark Cavendish, the Columbia sprinter who’d already won three stage races and declared he couldn’t be beaten, found himself in an unfamiliar place: second.

Instead of Cavendish sprinting to the stage win, it was Liquigas’s Francesco Chicchi who flashed across the finish line first. The surprise burst of speed from the Italian ended Cavendish’s dominating performance in the stages this week that favored sprinters.

Chicchi’s time was 1 hour, 57 minutes and 6 seconds. Cavendish was second, and Garmin-Chipotle’s Tyler Farrar was third.

“It was a headwind at the finish, and so I said to the guys, ‘Right, I’ve got to leave late to go, so you’ve got to release me as late as possible,” Cavendish said. “Then I ended up coming off of the wheel too early. Chicchi came past me at such a speed that … I was past and I was beat, and that was that.”

Through an interpreter, Chicchi said he saw his chance with 200 meters to go.

“I probably surprised Mark coming out so early and due to the headwind I probably got that little edge on him,” he said.

The final burst of speed capped a day that began with heavy rains that flooded Forest Park and cut the stage from 75 to 53 miles. Nonetheless, and despite overcast skies that seemed to thin out the crowds, tour officials declared the seven-day, 623-mile event a resounding success.

“We have our naysayers, but I think they’re trumped by the incredible turnout we’ve seen,” said Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, one of the people who helped bring the race to Missouri. “An awful lot of Missourians didn’t understand the animal we were trying to get off the ground a few years ago.”

That changed this year, he said, citing the influx of fans who lined highways, back roads and busy streets to cheer on the event.

“We set out to grow the event, and there’s been no question we’ve accomplished that — from the level of excitement to the crowds to the communities’ response to the overall competition” said Chris Aronhalt, a co-founder of Medalist Sports, which organized the race competition. “We expect for this to be a major event for years to come.”

A study of last year’s Tour of Missouri reported the six-day event drew 367,000 spectators. This year’s tour — stretched to seven days, with four different cities added to the schedule — had surpassed that number by Saturday, officials said.

“Everything else today is gravy,” said Jerry Dowell, the tour’s executive director.

On Sunday, fans in St. Louis lined the streets and cheered every time the peloton made one of its five laps through downtown.

Every time cyclists flashed by, cow bells rang out, kids cheered and people ran from the food booths to the orange barricades hoping to get a glimpse of the more than 100 cyclists.

Standing with his wife on a concrete park bench, Bill Evers let out a whoop as the peloton plowed past him.

“I think it’s great for St. Louis,” said Evers, 57. “I made it to two other stages this week. It’s fun, and people I talk to — even if they’re not into cycling — know about it this year. And they’re no longer saying it’s just people in spandex on a funny bike.”

After the race, Kinder told a crowd of cheering fans that he plans to ensure the race will become a mainstay.

“I pledge to you I will do everything I can to bring this back and make it a self-sustaining event,” he said.

That pledge will need to be backed by more money. The state has a three-year contract to subsidize the race through 2009, covering the event’s first three years. Officials hope that by that time the tour will have gained enough momentum — and sponsors — to be self-sustaining.

But there’s no guarantee that Missouri tax dollars won’t be involved in keeping the tour — which generated $26.2 million in tourism dollars last year — alive.

“The state’s division of tourism will probably always be right in the middle of this,” Kinder said.

For the riders, the day was a chance to celebrate the end to a difficult race and, for many of them, say goodbye to the 2008 season.

“Everyone’s overall impression has been that it’s been hard, a lot more than we expected,” said Vande Velde, who has one last criterion race before ending his season.

Vande Velde’s final stage race of the year turned with the time trials in Branson. After watching Cavendish win the first two stages, the American made his move.

“From there on, it was game on, it was a big war with everyone trying to throw everything at us, trying to take away the (lead) I had from the time trial,” Vande Velde said. “There are a lot of times when people just concede or relax or don’t put as much emphasis into attacking.”

Not in Missouri, he said.

“There were a lot of people attacking and attacking furiously. That made it really hard.”

Then there was the course.

“It was always up and down,” he said. “That made it easier to attack from the back and it’s harder to take control. It was a very hard race. Everyone from top to bottom was relieved to finish today.”

Particularly Chicchi, who expressed humility at how fortunate he felt to have outpaced Cavendish for the stage win. Cavendish, who’d spent much of the week explaining how he couldn’t lose, was polite and in high spirits as he talked about what had gone wrong Sunday.

“That’s the first time someone’s actually passed me in a sprint since March,” Cavendish said. “It was shocking. But you know Francesco’s really, really fast. What can I do?”