Tour de Georgia weblog

Stage 1 wrapup

cyclingnews.com | Tinkoff rides the wind to a win

VeloNews | Tinkoff's Contrini wins Georgia opener

Daniele Contrini of Tinkoff Credit Systems is the first leader of the Tour de Georgia, after surviving a long break on Stage 1.

Contrini, who raced here in 2005 for Team LPR, chalks up Tinkoff's first victory in North America, ahead of Doug Ollerenshaw of Health Net/Maxxis and Ben Day of Navigators Insurance. A wicked tailwind gave the breakaway a slight advantage, but the pack whittled down a lead of more than 8 minutes to slightly more than a minute at the finish. Health Net's Ryder Hesjedal led in the field at 1:07. Health Net and Navigators each had 3 riders in the day's top 10.

Tinkoff faces an interesting tactical situation: They brought only 6 riders, and Tyler Hamilton is probably here to race his own race, so they're left with only 4 riders to set tempo.

Top 10 (Stage and overall):
1) Daniele Contrini, Italy, Tinkoff Credit Systems
2) Doug Ollerenshaw, US, Health Net/Maxxis, @ :21
3) Ben Day, Australia, Navigators Insurance, @ :28
4) Ryder Hesjedal, Canada, Health Net/Maxxis, @ 1:07
5) Ivan Dominguez, Cuba, Toyota-United, same time
6) Karl Menzies, Australia, Health Net/Maxxis, s.t.
7) Sergey Lagutin, Uzbekistan, Navigators Insurance, s.t.
8) Ciaran Power, Ireland, Navigators Insurance, s.t.
9) Juan José Haedo, Argentina, Team CSC, s.t.
10) Alessandro Proni, Italy, Quick Step, s.t.

cyclingnews.com | Stage 1 Photo Gallery

Contrini wins Stage 1

www.cyclingnews.com presents the Tour de Georgia

There are only brief results so far, but Daniele Contrini of Tinkoff Credit Systems took Stage 1 into Macon today. Doug Ollerenshaw of Health Net and Ben Day of Navigators round out the podium.

The top three were the surviviors of a nearly day-long break that had more than 8 minutes in hand at one point, but the peloton swallowed almost the entire break, with Contrini, Ollerenshaw, and Day about a minute free of the field.

Ryder Hesjedal of Health Net took the field sprint for 4th, ahead of Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez and Health Net's Karl Menzies.

More soon.

Peachtree City to roll out the golf carts

ajc.com | Tour de Georgia to start today with gantlet of golf carts in P'tree City

So, if you're not from around here, Peachtree City is mostly known around Georgia for its extensive series of paths. In other places, these would be called bike paths or nature paths, but in Peachtree City, they're cart paths, used by the golf carts most residents own and use on the trail network.

Residents in golf carts have been asked to line the beginning of the 97-mile route, but Peachtree City Mayor Harold Logsdon doesn't expect the spectators to get as close to the riders as they will on Brasstown Bald come Friday.

"Most of them won't get out of their golf carts," Logsdon said.

The AJC.com story also notes that TdG coverage will be on Versus (formerly Outdoor Life Network) later this month, on April 28th and 29th.

Let's get to racing

Time to kick off the 2007 Tour de Georgia. Today's stage runs from Medalist Sports headquarters in Peachtree City, down to traditional Stage 1 finishing town, Macon. It's 98.5 miles in all, with 3 circuits of a 2.55-mile loop in downtown Macon expected to happen around 4:30 or 5 p.m.

Stage 1 is traditionally a field sprint after a suicide break. In 2006, Aaron Olson provided the break, and Lars Michaelsen of Team CSC won the field sprint ahead of Freddie Rodriguez and Caleb Manion. Michaelsen, in his final career race, took a special lap of honor yesterday at Paris-Roubaix, where his teammate Stuart O'Grady won the Hell of the North, the toughest of the spring classics.

I'm still a little confused on the team rosters: I found a posted copy dated April 11th, but then in Saturday's pre-race press conference, Levi Leipheimer mentioned Janez Brajkovic as a Discovery Channel rider, and he's not on that roster, so I'll wait to post a final roster link. Update: CyclingNews has a start list that looks reasonable.

Here are the big names: Leipheimer, Hincapie, Danielson for Discovery Channel; Zabriskie, Vande Velde, Haedo for Team CSC; Freddie Rodriguez, Stefano Zanini, and Nick Gates for Predictor-Lotto; 2005 Giro d'Italia winner Gilberto Simoni and David Millar of Prodir-Saunier Duval; Tyler Hamilton, back from his 2-year suspension, for Tinkoff Credit Systems; Nathan O'Neill and Ryder Hesjedal from Health Net/Maxxis; Danny Pate, Tom Peterson, and Patrick McCarty from Team Slipstream; Ivan Dominguez, Chris Baldwin, Chris Wherry, and Henk Vogels from Toyota-United; and Ben Jacques-Maynes of Priority Health.

The strongest sprinters in the field are probably Haedo, Dominguez, and Rodriguez: If you gave me three shots, those are the guys I'd pick to win today. Dominguez has been a monster domestically, and Haedo is coming off a win in the Tour of Cologne: My money's on Haedo for the win today.

The web tracker with video that made its debut for the Tour of California has been updated for the TdG, and is available at www.tourdegeorgiatracker.com. Stage starts at 1 p.m. Eastern. Here's the course map, the course profile, and the course log from the official Tour de Georgia website.

Race Previews:

VeloNews: Fifth Tour de Georgia kicks off on Monday

CyclingNews | Georgia is back, and bigger

Procycling | Who will succeed Landis?