From looking at the Navigators team car in the closing minutes of stage 2 of the Dodge Tour de Georgia, you’d have been hard pressed to pick it out as the car of the race leader. Sure its windshield was marked with the No. 1, thanks to Henk Vogels starting the day in the yellow jersey, but pulled over by the side of the road in Columbus, Georgia, its rear right tire going flat, the team’s silver wagon looked like just another sign that things were slipping away.

Team directors Ed Beamon and Ray Cipollini, and mechanic Mike Spilker, could only watch as the race disappeared up the road, speeding along toward downtown Columbus, with Vogels’s leader’s jersey possibly disappearing up the road as well.

The peloton heads down the road... as the Nav's tire goes flat.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Earlier in the day, Saturn’s Chris Horner had captured a key time bonus that would have put him into the race lead by the end of the day, unless Vogels could get that time back by taking one of the bonuses up for grabs for the top three stage finishers.

The race sped through town, and in the sprint finish, Italian Moreno DiBiase (Formaggi Pinzolo) grabbed the win in the sporting complex at Columbus Civic Center, just ahead of Fred Rodriguez (Vini Caldirola-Sidermec). But while Horner had an inopportune flat inside 1km to go (he is credited with the same time as the main field), Vogels salvaged the day, sprinting in for third and holding onto the leader’s jersey for another day.

Miles away, a still frustrated Beamon could "celebrate" his "consolation prize" for the day.

The day began with the Navigators under fire, as attack after attack pushed the average pace to 30mph for the first hour of the race, a 180-degree turnaround from Wednesday’s crawling pace for most of the day.

"It was Saturn’s strategy to make the race today as hard as possible," said Horner. "From the start, we didn’t want to get too far behind the 8-ball on Henk. We were looking at 16 seconds [in bonuses] today, and the same tomorrow. That could give him 30 seconds before the hard day on Saturday, and that’s more than we want to give him."

The men in the break

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Finally, when Sierra Nevada’s Troy White, Ofoto’s Erik Saunders and Saturn’s Phil Zajicek established a workable gap, Navigators were content to roll tempo at the front of the field, and the rest of the teams held back on any further attacks.

"We had been going for a long time, and the guys kind of just let us go," said Saunders. "But it was so fast today that to have a successful break you need eight or 10 guys that are going to put down."

The break didn’t have those numbers, but with Navigators happy, and the trio of riders working steadily up front, they were able to stay away for 40 miles, getting caught just before the second sprint of the day.

At that sprint in Warms Springs, Horner made what looked like could be the key play of the day, snagging the time bonus sprint ahead of 7UP’s Greg Henderson and Schroeder’s Miguel Meza.

The sprint was followed quickly by the day’s only KOM spot, a 2.9-mile, 4 percent average grade climb. There, DiBiase got a good sense that this could be his day, winning the sprint ahead of Horner and another Italian, Mauro Radaelli (Vini Caldirola).

From there, Navigators were content to let a couple of lone breakaways roll, first Russell Hamby (Ofoto-Lombardi Sports), then Jason McCartney (7UP-Maxxis), who held a 30-second lead heading into town, but would be finally swallowed up well before the finale.

After that, several teams went to the front to try to control the sprint, including Postal and Prime Alliance, but when it came down to the finish, it was the Italians who got the best of them, with DiBiase taking the win and Vini Caldirola delivering Rodriguez to second place.

"I already knew when I won the KOM that I had good legs today," said DiBiase.

Vogels legs, meanwhile, were just good enough to keep him in the race leader’s jersey. He’ll start the day Friday again in yellow, and the Navigators car will, hopefully, roll out from the start again with a big No. 1 painted on its windshield.

Race notes
* Friday’s stage 3 will be the longest of the race, covering 138 miles from Pine Mountain to Rome. The race begins at 10 a.m. local time, and will finish at approximately 3:30 p.m.

* Four riders abandoned on Thursday’s stage: Kenny Labbe (U.S. Postal Service), Jonathan Page (Prime Alliance), Kurt Garin (Jittery Joe’s) and Gregory Wolf (Colavita Bolla)

* The leaders’ jersey’s are as follows: Race leader: Vogels; Sprint: Meza; KOM: Horner; Best Young Rider: Saul Raisin (Ofoto-Lombardi Sports).