Tour de Georgia weblog

Frankie Andreu talks to Kantstantsin Siutsou

The Broadband Racer | Kanstantsin Siutsou

Photo by Ken Conley

The Broadband Racer has video of Siutsou's big win, and a brief interview immediately afterward. The Belorussian gave a shout-out to George Hincapie, who advised Siutsou on the climb and the best point to launch his attack.

It must have been pretty good advice, as neither Levi Leipheimer nor Trent Lowe was able to match the pace when the new race leader made his move.

Stage 2 photo galleries

Jacques-Maynes earns a jersey
Originally uploaded by Frank Steele.

That's Ben Jacques-Maynes leading the field over the KoM line on Clocktower Hill for the first time. As a result, B J-M becomes the first rider to wear the King of the Mountains jersey this year.

I was amazed by how many photographers were set up right at the King of the Mountains sprint line atop Clocktower Hill. I got there a little after 4, and every 5 minutes, a motorcycle would thrum to the top, and invariably, it was a photo moto, and yet another photographer would climb off.

Hink in the house
Originally uploaded by Frank Steele.

Tyler Hamilton
Originally uploaded by Frank Steele.

Other Stage 2 galleries:

CyclingNews.com | Stage 2 photo gallery

VeloNews | Stage 2 photo gallery by Casey B. Gibson

And here's the tourtracker Flickr photostream that's being updated throughout the race.

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?

2007 Tour de Georgia teams announced

Rome News - Tribune | Top cycling teams to compete in Tour de Georgia

Tyler Hamilton and his Tinkoff Credit System team and David Millar of Prodir-Saunier Duval are two new additions likely to ride in this year's Tour de Georgia.

The event's 15 teams are confirmed, and it's mostly the usual suspects.

Among ProTour teams:

• Team CSC
• Discovery Channel
• Quick Step-Innergetic
• Predictor-Lotto
• Prodir-Saunier Duval (which races in Europe as Saunier Duval-Prodir)

Three familiar Pro Continental squads are joined by Hamilton's Tinkoff Credit System:

• Health Net presented by Maxxis
• Team Slipstream presented by Chipotle
• Navigators Insurance
• Tinkoff Credit System

Five US Continental squads:

• Jittery Joe's
• Priority Health presented by Bissell
• Toyota-United
• BMC
• Colavita/Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light

And, of course, the USA Cycling National Development Team.

There are no rider confirmations yet, but expect Discovery Channel to bring Leipheimer, 2005 Tour de Georgia champion Tom Danielson, and George Hincapie; CSC to bring Dave Zabriskie, Juan José Haedo, and Bobby Julich; and for Quick Step to again NOT bring Tom Boonen or Paolo Bettini. Instead, let's hope for Freddy Rodgriguez, Chris Horner, and Cadel Evans.

Tyler Hamilton will be competing in the U.S. professionally for the first time in 6 years:

"I'm really looking forward to racing inside the United States again. I'm hoping the good block of early season racing I'll have under my belt by April will serve me well. The last pro cycling race I competed in inside the U.S. was in San Francisco in 2001," Hamilton said about his return to professional cycling. "I hope that we can make a good showing at the Tour of Georgia. The team is really strong and I have a lot of confidence in them. We'll pick the leader based on who is riding best at the time."

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Team Slipstream in action, and to the battle on Brasstown wth Hamilton, Leipheimer, Cesar Grajales, and Tom Danielson in the mix.

Hincapie hoping for return at Tour de Georgia

Friday's EuroFile | Brown wins Murcia stage; Hincapie eyes Georgia comeback

Discovery Channel's George Hincapie, missing the spring classics season with a fractured radius suffered at the Tour of California, thinks he'll be back racing at the Tour de Georgia.

Hincapie, the current U.S. road race champion, got his stitches out last week, and is riding on an indoor trainer until doctors let him back on the roads.

The reigning U.S. pro champion said he's only been able to ride on the trainer and is waiting for the green light from doctors to be able to resume regular training.

"I have been riding indoors only and waiting for the go ahead from the doctor to let me ride outside," he said. "I took a new set of X-rays and should know more."

Armstrong gives Hincapie props

Eurosport | Armstrong thankful for Hincapie

George Hincapie is the only US Postal rider who has ridden in all 5 of Lance Armstrong's Tour victories, and this is his 9th consecutive Tour. He's developed into a great classic/one day rider, and is headed to his 3rd Olympic Games in Athens later this summer.

Armstrong singled out the work Hincapie did in the TTT today and through the cobbles yesterday in post-race interviews:

"Yesterday, George was the key man," said Armstrong. "With him, I could trust that I was going to be in the right place and not make mistakes ... Today the guys were superb, especially George."

The article suggests that Hincapie, 2nd overall and 10 seconds back, is as close as he's ever been to the yellow jersey, and that the team might try to move the jersey around, since the top 5 are all Postal riders.

Actually, Hincapie has been 2nd before, and a bitter 2nd, just 2 seconds out of yellow to Bo Hamburger after Stage 3 of the 1998 Tour.

It's not so simple to give the yellow jersey to a teammate, but Postal could try to cover all the breaks, recognizing that any successful break at this point would likely transfer the jersey.

At left, a shot of Hincapie climbing Brasstown Bald during the Tour de Georgia this year.

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.