cyclingnews.com | Carrying the Discovery torch
Discovery Channel's Tom Danielson comes into the Tour de Georgia the clear favorite for overall victory. Danielson has traditionally been a climbing specialist, whose time-trialing has improved over the last few years, and is well-suited to this year's hilly course profile.
His Discovery Channel team absolutely controlled the race last year, winning two stages, the team category, best young rider (Janez Brajkovic, who's back), and king of the mountains (Jason McCartney, ditto): Everything but the overall, as Floyd Landis beat Danielson by 4 seconds in the time trial and made it stand up by shadowing Danielson to the line on Brasstown Bald.
This year's course is even more favorable to Danielson, as the time trial is a climbing TT. Also, Levi Leipheimer, another of the strongest climbers in the race, is riding on Danielson's squad this year.
So who could threaten Danielson's overall? Gilberto Simoni of Prodir-Saunier Duval, a very strong climber with a Giro d'Italia win to show for it, is the obvious threat, and if Tyler Hamilton returns to his competitive form, he's a dark horse, as well. I tend to discount the US-based teams for the overall, but would love to be wrong on that.
There's also an interesting interview with Danielson at the Paul on Podium weblog, interesting because it focuses more on the mental side of the sport than any rider interview I can remember.
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