THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Stevic takes stage 2 in Georgia
After a frustrating finish to Monday’s opener, Toyota-United was rejoicing on Tuesday as Ivan Stevic sprinted to victory in stage 2 of the 2007 Tour de Georgia.
J.J. Haedo (Team CSC) and Freddie Rodriguez (Predictor-Lotto) crossed second and third, while Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff Credit Systems) retained the leader’s jersey after a 135-mile day filled with crosswinds, crashes and a long, three-man break that wasn’t mopped until the peloton began marching on Rome.
Tuesday’s long neutral parade of almost six miles made for an antsy start and one insignificant crash involving Kirk O'Bee (Health Net-Maxxis), which delayed the race's official start. The wind then kept any aggressive impulses in check until just after the 16-mile mark, when Austin King (Jittery Joe’s) took a flyer.
He was soon joined by Glen Alan Chadwick (Navigators Insurance) and Garrett Peltonen (Priority Health-Bissell), and the trio built a lead of nearly nine minutes as the peloton ground along between Thomaston and Rome, battling crosswinds and the progressively tougher rolling hills. A number of squads took their turns at the front, but Tinkoff did the majority of the work in defense of Contrini’s jersey.
A crash just short of the 90-mile mark took down Tinkoff’s Ruggero Marzoli, Discovery's Levi Leipheimer and BMC’s Mike Sayers. Sayers, who's had a run of bad luck of late, abandoned, though his team maintained that he was not seriously injured.
Up front, King, Peltonen and Chadwick scooped up the points at the two sprint sites, with Chadwick taking top honors both times. But their margin slowly began to drop. First Peltonen was caught, and then King, leaving only Chadwick to fend off the big chase. But after six and a half hours, he had been reabsorbed, too, and a reunited peloton began marching into Rome.
With 5km to go, Health Net-Maxxis went to the front to control the three laps of the finishing circuit, which included the short, nasty climb up Clocktower Hill. Ben Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health-Bissell) nipped away to snatch the King of the Mountain points on the first ascent, collecting the climber’s jersey for his efforts.
"I was more looking towards getting our sprinter Emile Abraham into a good position into the finale." Jacques-Maynes said at the post-race press conference. "Health Net was leading out a pretty good train, and I was trying to figure out which one of them would go for it. I've ridden this hill a couple of times, and knew how to hit it with speed."
Then, with one lap to go, David Zabriskie (Team CSC) lit it up only to see his move as quickly snuffed out.
"This is only my second race, but I gave it a shot,” he said afterward.
Then Stevic and his Toyota teammates cranked up their revenge for getting shut out on stage 1. Stevic got the green light with a little less than a kilometer to go, and he did not disappoint.
"I didn't know at first about which gears I (should use). There was a big chaos in my head," Stevic said. "I was looking back and I saw the guys looking at each other and I knew that (I had) a big chance because I was getting a bigger gap. I just pushed it as hard as I can."
Wednesday brings the 118-mile stage 3 from Rome to Chattanooga. This will be a day for the climbers as the peloton tackles two category 4 and two category 3 climbs.
Tour de Georgia — stage 2
Final top 10
1. Ivan Stevic, Toyota-United
2. J.J. Haedo, Team CSC
3. Fred Rodriguez, Predictor-Lotto
4. Sergey Lagutin, Navigators Insurance
5. Alessandro Proni, Quick Step-Innergetic
6. Levi Leipheimer, Discovery Channel
7. Charles Dionne, Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home
8. Rory Sutherland, Health Net-Maxxis
9. David Canada, Saunier Duval-Prodir
10. Tom Danielson, Discovery Channel
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