Tour de Georgia weblog

Grajales outgoats Tour de Georgia field for Stage 6 win

Grajales scores mountain triumph in Georgia; Armstrong takes third and cements lead

Colombia's Cesar Grajales took a huge win on Saturday, almost certainly the biggest win in the history of his Athens, GA-based Jittery Joe's team.

Grajales rode away from Lance Armstrong, Jens Voigt, Chris Horner, and everybody else on the hors categorie final climb to Georgia's highest point, Brasstown Bald.

After starting in the hometown of Jittery Joe's, the stage ended with a climb of close to 12 miles, including the approach to the mountain and more than 3 miles up the mountain itself. Grajales, who lives about 2 hours away, had been riding the course twice a week in preparation for Saturday's stage.

It is huge for our team because we are the local team," an emotional Grajales said. "We are maybe the smallest team in the group, so this is just amazing for us. Everybody knows that Lance [Armstrong] has different goals. His goal is for the Tour de France. This is the biggest race in the United States, the Tour de Georgia, and I was training for this day three months ago. I'm just happy because all this work, all this training...I'm just really happy."

Jens Voigt was second on the day, finishing alongside race leader Lance Armstrong. The two put time into everyone but Grajales, who jumped into 6th overall. Going into Sunday's final stage from Dawsonville to Alpharetta, it's:

1) Armstrong, US Postal, 22:19:05
2) Voigt, CSC, at 24 secs
3) Chris Horner, Webcor, at 1:01
4) Bobby Julich, CSC, at 1:57
5) Viatcheslav Ekimov, US Postal, at 2:59
6) Cesar Grajales, Jittery Joe's, at 3:07

Sunday's final stage is a much flatter (nothing in North Georgia is flat) road stage, with a circuit finish in Alpharetta, the horse country suburb of Atlanta. Armstrong's overall lead certainly looks secure.

Also:

cyclingnews.com | Grajales delivers in deliverance country: Colombian climber beats the best on Brasstown Bald

VeloNews | Georgia, Stage 6: A photo gallery

Daily Peloton | Dodge Tour de Georgia: Stage 6 Seen and Heard is a photo gallery with comments from a few riders about the long transfers (each day starts in a different city than the previous finish) on the Tour de Georgia, and pictures of riders, of Bob Roll and this shot of Sheryl Crow (click through to see them all):

VeloNews Tour de Georgia photo gallery

VeloNews | Tour de Georgia: a photo gallery

VeloNews has posted its 1st photo gallery from the Tour de Georgia. It's primarily of Armstrong and the Postal Service boys, all shot today on the road between Dalton and Dahlonega.

It's all through the lens of Casey Gibson.

Full Stage 5 report

PezCycling News | Georgia Stg 5: McCartney Wins Epic Day

PezCycling has what I think is the first detailed stage report on today's Stage 5, won by HealthNet's Jason McCartney.

PezCycling quotes Lance Armstrong's reaction to news that US Postal will drop its sponsorship after this season: "It’s always tough news like this but I have great feelings and memories."

Another good point from the story is that the CSC team of Bobby Julich and Jens Voigt, and the Webcor squad of Chris Horner need to go all out to upset the status quo on Saturday's stage if they're to have any hope of knocking Armstrong off this tour's top step.

McCartney wins Tour de Georgia Stage 5

VeloNews | McCartney takes mountainous stage win in Georgia

HealthNet rider Jason McCartney took one of the hardest stages of this year's Tour de Georgia, the 139 mile stage from Dalton to Dahlonega, with almost 19,000 cumulative feet of climbing.

All the leaders (Armstrong, Voigt, Horner, Julich) finished together. George Hincapie lost 48 seconds, and Pavel Padrnos 5:45. The Tour de Georgia ste has complete results.

Tomorrow's stage runs from Athens to the very top of Georgia, Brasstown Bald.

Tour de Georgia photo galleries

The Atlanta Journal-Constituion (free registration required) is doing a fairly good job covering the Tour de Georgia, and in particular, they've got daily photo galleries from their photographer on the spot, Brant Sanderlin. Friday's gallery is here.

There's a link on each page that should let you buy reprints, but I haven't been able to get anything to come up yet.

Some other highlights:

The best shot I've yet seen of the Armstrong-Dominguez sprint Thursday

A local boy runs alongside Armstrong during the Thursday evening time trial (a Page 1 photo Friday morning)

The Tour de France has sunflowers, we've got azaleas, as the Tour de Georgia passes through Callaway Gardens Wednesday

Cipollini's stage win in Columbus

Stage 1 gallery

Tour de Georgia updates

I'm likely to get out to the race this weekend, and hope to post some pictures and more.

Meanwhile, if you've got anything related to the TdG you would like to share, you can e-mail pictures, commentary, or news to a new email address: it's 'tdg' at 'tdfblog.com' (no quotes).

If you're heading out to see the race, here's a local view of where the race is going, and what some of the towns along the course have planned.

Armstrong takes leader's jersey in Georgia

Armstrong in Georgia Tour leader's jersey after TT

Lance Armstrong showed his off-season work on time trialing is paying dividends, as he took the climbing individual time trial at the Tour de Georgia Thursday afternoon.

The win puts Armstrong in the overall race lead, 24 seconds ahead of Jens Voigt, who had a similar double win in March at the Criterium International.

The strong Euro-based teams are starting to open up a lead in the overall classification (Tour de Georgia results page), as US Postal and CSC holding 5 of the top 6 placings in the GC. Chris Horner of Webcor has dominated the US scene over 2003 and the early season of 2004, and his 3rd place, 51 seconds back here in Georgia shows he's got the legs to race anywhere.

In Rome, Armstrong does as the crit riders do

VeloNews | Armstrong takes field sprint in Georgia

Lance Armstrong gave a good indicator of his fitness level, with a win in a criterium-style finish at the Tour de Georgia in Rome. It's not often we see Armstrong winning a race by a bike toss, but a short steep climb on the finishing circuit took its toll of the sprint specialists, leaving the primary overall contenders in a small group to contest the finish.

Armstrong picked the right wheel to follow in the sprint: Ivan Dominguez, who has now finished 2nd in all 3 stages of the Tour de Georgia. Dominguez takes the leader's yellow jersey at least through tonight's Time Trial around Rome. Dominguez was marking Chris Horner and George Hincapie:

"I like a race like that one. I don't like a flat race. I'm not a climber, but I hate flat races. Coming up the last hill I was behind Horner and he started going and I lost maybe half-a-bike, and Bobby Julich and George Hincapie, they passed me and then stayed there. Coming to the finish I just followed Hincapie's wheel, and I started passing him and Armstrong got me on the finish."

Armstrong was never a criterium specialist, even when he raced in America, and he commented on the different skills necessary for racing circuits of city streets instead of a road course:

"This is a whole other art, here. It's crazy," Armstrong said. "I'm glad I don't do it for a living. You can tell these guys are used to racing this style of races. In these races you have no friends, you have no allies, and you have no brakes. In Europe it's very different. There's a different hierarchy in the European peloton, and most guys use their brakes over there a little more."

Countdown to Tour de Georgia

VeloNews | Monday's EuroFile: Julich and Armstrong look to Georgia; Backstedt still walking on air; Millar not so happy

VeloNews reports that Bobby Julich will be flying back to the US later today in preparation for the Tour de Georgia next week. There are detailed maps available, if you're planning to watch some of the race.

I was in Athens a week ago tonight, and saw a US Postal car already in town.

Armstrong on Dick Pound, Ullrich, Tour of Georgia

www.cyclingnews.com | Pedalling circles

The folks at cyclingnews.com talked with Lance Armstrong after Stage 3 of the Tour of Murcia on Friday.

On Jan Ullrich:

CN: How does he look to you?

LA: Big. But I think he looks better than he normally looks this time of year. There's no doubt that (Jan) is seven or eight kilos more than his Tour weight. He's been heavier other years. But Ullrich looks strong, is how he does look. I wouldn't say he looks fat. Jan always gets in shape for the Tour; he's always ready.

On the back-and-forth with World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound:

"I don't know how many guys came up to me today and said 'thank you'. And that's what this open letter was for. It was not a defense of me, but it was a defense of our sport. Mr. Pound, in his response to my open letter said "Lance, I don't know where I ever mentioned you." But the truth of the matter was that he did something a lot worse than that; he did something two hundred times worse than that. Because he mentioned all of the [Tour de France] riders."

On April's Tour de Georgia:

I won't be in top shape there so most likely, I'll be down on the other guys there, but you never know. I'll be motivated to race, but I'm not going to the Tour de Georgia with the intention of winning. That time of year, if I look at other years, it's not a bad time of year, but it's not a time of year I do long uphills fast. So it's probably still too early for me to climb well enough to win.

Read it all -- it's a good look at where Armstrong is at this point in his season.