Tour de Georgia weblog

Rock to roll, Saunier to rest during '08 TdG

VeloNews | Saunier Duval won't be in Georgia, Rock will

With the race only 5 days away, there's a last-minute switcheroo atop the 2008 Tour de Georgia start list. Saunier Duval-Prodir, which has participated in most (all?) of the Tours de Georgia, has backed out, citing injuries and a need to rest up before the Giro in May.

Rock Racing, which was suing to get into the race, now finds a spot open. Whether they'll bring the theatrics, as they did in California, remains to be seen. It seems likely they'll bring Redlands winner Santiago Botero, multiple Tour de Georgia stage winner Freddie Rodriguez, and Tyler Hamilton, who raced here last year for Tinkoff as the wheels began to come off his season.

There could be more intrigue to come, as Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla, and Botero were prevented from starting the Tour of California.

Also:

cyclingnews.com | Rock to race Tour de Georgia

Rock Racing | Rock Racing Will Rock the 2008 Tour de Georgia

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.

Danielson the clear favorite as '07 TdG starts

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.

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.

Tyler Hamilton to ride Tour de Georgia?

cyclingnews.com | Hamilton decision expected on Monday

Looks like, even with no racing, Monday's going to be a big day for US cycling. Lance Armstrong will announce, well, something, in Augusta, at the pre-event press conference for the Tour de Georgia. Speculation is that he'll announce that 2005 will be his last shot at the Tour de France, with 2006 focused on the US calendar.

Now cyclingnews.com reports that the US Anti-Doping Agency is very likely to counter with a little announcement of their own: The long-awaited results of Tyler Hamilton's appeal of his suspension for blood doping.

Hamilton presented his case in the week of February 27th, and reportedly attacked the credibility of the homologous blood doping procedure, which was first used in cycling during the 2004 season.

Does the long delay mean the tribunal was swayed by Hamilton's case? The cyclingnews.com story quotes an unnamed but "prominent US rider" that Hamilton is expected to "get off" and to take the start at the Tour de Georgia on Tuesday.

Even if the USADA clears Hamilton, the UCI might take separate action, appealing the USADA action to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.