Tour de Georgia weblog

Dominguez takes Tour de Georgia Stage 1

Photo by Ken Conley

Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez took a smart victory in the first stage of the 2008 Tour de Georgia Monday.

While Rock Racing (with Freddie Rodriguez), High Road (with Greg Henderson), and Gerolsteiner (with Robert Förster) jockeyed for position at the front of the field, Dominguez found a good wheel, and just flat outsprinted the field.

Jelly Belly's Nicholas Sanderson was 2nd and Förster 3rd, with essentially all riders finishing in the same time.

Stage 1 Top 10:
1) Ivan Dominguez (Cuba), Toyota-United, 2:30:18
2) Nicholas Sanderson (Australia), Jelly Belly, same time, U25
3) Robert Förster (Germany), Gerolsteiner, s.t.
4) Richard England (Australia), Bissell Pro Cycling, s.t.
5) Sergey Kudentsov (Russia), Marco Polo, s.t.
6) Danilo Wyss (Switzerland), BMC, s.t., U25
7) Bradley Mcgee (Australia), CSC, s.t.
8) Greg Henderson (New Zealand), Team High Road, s.t.
9) Aaron Kemps (Australia), Astana, s.t.
10) Karl Menzies (Australia), Health Net-Maxxis, s.t.
U25 - qualifies for young rider leader's jersey.

Looks more like the Tour Down Under standings, with 5 Aussies in the top 10 and Greg Henderson from New Zealand. The best placed US rider was BMC's Taylor Tolleson, 13th, with Chris Horner 18th. It appears neither Freddie Rodriguez nor JJ Haedo were their team's featured sprinters today: Sevilla in 14th was the best placed Rock Racing rider (Rodriguez in 54th), and McGee led CSC in 7th with Haedo back in 75th.

Tyler Farrar finished last, but in the same time as the leaders after puncturing in the day's last 2k. Scott Zwizanski of Bissell, the broom wagon sponsors, is positioned just in front of them in 119th, last overall.

Overall Top 10:
1) Ivan Dominguez, Toyota-United, 2:30:08
2) Nicholas Sanderson, Jelly Belly, at :04, U25
3) Greg Henderson, Team High Road, at :05
4) Tyler Farrar (USA), Slipstream-Chipotle, at :05, U25
5) Robert Forster, Gerolsteiner, at :06
6) Ivan Stevic (Serbia), Toyota-United, at :06
7) Christian Meier (Canada), Symmetrics, at :07, U25
8) Garrett Peltonen (USA), Bissell Pro Cycling, at :09
9) Richard England, Bissell Pro Cycling, at :10
10) Sergey Kudentsov, Marco Polo, at :10

Also:

spare cycles | Dominguez takes Stage 1 | photo gallery

VeloNews | Dominguez bike details

Dominguez rides a Fuji TT frame in road stages, which is heavier but stiffer and more aero than their road frame, mated to a road fork.

Stage 1 preview

The Tour de Georgia kicks off on Tybee Island, just outside of Savannah, with a nearly out-and-back course that's fairly short and very flat. Unless an ill wind blows in, this stage looks like a field sprint, and the best 3 sprinters in the field are Juan José Haedo of Team CSC, Freddie Rodriguez of Rock Racing, and Ivan Dominguez of Toyota-United.

Georgia's big annual state ride is BRAG, the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia, which frequently ends in Savannah and passes through Pooler, which will host two of the day's three intermediate “Georgia Power Sprints,” at the 32.8 and 59.5 mile marks.

Stage 1 Course Map

Stage 1 Profile (or look at your desktop surface)

Stage 1 Log

VeloNews | 2008 Tour de Georgia start list

Pre-previewing the 2008 Tour de Georgia

The countdown continues to the 2008 edition of the Tour de Georgia. It's great to see the race surviving, even if it has slipped to the 2nd-biggest US stage race, behind the Tour of California.

This year's edition adds a few interesting twists. First, the race starts all the way down on Tybee Island, near Savannah, taking the riders farther below the gnat line than ever before.

Second, there's no individual time trial, as it's been dropped in favor of a team time trial to be run as Stage 4 on Thursday on the fairly hilly road course at Braselton's Road Atlanta. It's a TTT, but no funny bikes are allowed, apparently to keep costs and complications down for teams traveling from Europe.

Two stages essentially repeat from last year: Stage 6 starts in Blairsville and runs up Brasstown Bald, which has become the craggy face of the race, and Stage 7 is again a circuit race beginning and ending at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. I drove through downtown on Sunday, and there are still signs of the tornado that hit the area around the park on March 14th during the SEC basketball tournament.

For your race planning, Medalist Sports has provided a Tour de Georgia Google Maps file that details KoM lines, bonus sprints and starts and finishes.

If you're in the Southeast, it's a fabulous show, well worth the drive. If somehow you can't make it, SportSouth will provide 30-minute daily race updates at 10:30 p.m. most nights (kicked back as late as 1 a.m. on Friday night/Saturday morning).

As for riders, there are no official start lists yet, but Team CSC has posted their TdG roster, including Jason McCartney, Bobby Julich, Iñigo Cuesta, Bradley McGee, and Juan José Haedo (at left).

Haedo has been the most successful sprinter in the TdG's history, and McCartney has absolutely torn up the hilly bits of two previous TdGs.

Cycling Startlists has defending champ Janez Brajkovic and José Luis Rubiera riding for Astana, with others coming from their full 2008 roster.

Slipstream/Chipotle will probably bring last year's race runner-up Christian Vande Velde, and 7 of Blake Caldwell, 2005 winner Tom Danielson (who himself was a close 2nd to Floyd Landis here in 2006), Timmy Duggan, Lucas Euser, Tyler Farrar, Trent Lowe, Danny Pate, and David Zabriskie.

Full startlists should be up in the next day or two.

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.

Haedo joins CSC

Eurosport | CSC sign sprinter Haedo

  Juan José Haedo 
  Originally uploaded by Frank Steele.

Bjarne Riis announced the signing of Argentina's Juan José Haedo, who had won stages in America's biggest races while racing for Toyota-United.

Haedo joins CSC, giving them the finishing kick they seemingly have lacked the last few seasons.

Said Haedo:

"I'm the first ever Argentinean rider to be given a chance at this level and the fact that Team CSC has chosen me gives me a tremendous confidence boost," added Haedo.

Haedo took 2 wins at the 2006 Tour of California, and the final stage of the 2006 Tour of Georgia.