Georgia on my mind

Well it was an interesting result in the end, but not so surprising. NZ's Greg Henderson won the final sprint for High Road, and the team picked up the overall as well - just. What conclusions can we draw? Is this a serious indication of tour form for High Road? Will Slipstream's Trent Lowe come of age this year with a major win? Where's Mick Rogers?

Well it's only April. Let's look at the top 30 or so anyway.

Siutsou was a revelation and deserved winner, and Aussie Lowe came oh-so-close to end up 2nd on GC. Leiphemer could only hang with these guys for 3rd. (But it's April, and Astana won't be at Le Tour anyway.) There was a bunch of guys close, too, but they also won't figure in July. However it was nice to see Oscar Sevilla racing at a high level again (6th). Rory Sutherland was a good 9th and could have been higher with a bit of luck. Julich's 10th also under-rated his potential. Willo, Chadwick and McGee were all in the mix, too.

1 Kanstantin Siutsou (Blr) Team High Road 22.44.44

2 Trent Lowe (Aus) Slipstream Chipotle p/b H30 0.04

3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0.14

4 Antonio Colom Mas (Spa) Astana 1.02

5 Iñigo Cuesta Lopez De Castro (Spa) Team CSC 1.11

6 Oscar Sevilla (Spa) Rock Racing 1.25

7 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Slipstream Chipotle p/b H30 1.32

8 Moises Aldape Chavez (Mex) Team Type 1 1.37

9 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Health Net p/b Maxxis 2.08

10 Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC 2.31

11 José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) Astana 2.39

12 Scott Nydam (USA) BMC Racing Team 2.49

13 George Hincapie (USA) Team High Road 3.19

14 Michael Blaudzun (Den) Team CSC 3.26

15 Valery Kobzarenko (Ukr) Team Type 1 3.29

16 Darren Lill (RSA) BMC Racing Team

17 Christopher Jones (USA) Team Type 1 3.37

18 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team 3.44

19 Francois Parisien (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team 3.48

20 Glen Chadwick (Aus) Team Type 1 4.13

21 Trent Wilson (Aus) Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling Team 4.15

22 Bradley McGee (Aus) Team CSC 4.26

23 Christopher Baldwin (USA) Toyota - United Pro Cycling Team 4.28

24 Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team

25 Michael Lange (USA) Jelly Belly Cycling Team 4.34

26 Jai Crawford (Aus) GE Trek - Marco Polo Cycling Team 5.02

27 Matt Cooke (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis 5.06

28 Chris Horner (USA) Astana 5.33

29 Jeremy Vennell (NZl) Bissell Pro Cycling 5.46

30 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner 6.02

Cuban missile wins, (Aus) dominates Tour de Georgia stage 1

Go Ivan! There's always something nice about a US and Japanese corporation-sponsored US-domestic pro bike team winning ahead of the ProTour teams. Better yet, being Cuban in origin allows everyone to use the "Cuban missile" cliche yet again. Life is good.

Interesting to see who was up there in the sprint... and it's a loooong way back to the first Yank, Taylor Tolleson (sorry, who?), let alone non-sprinter Chris Horner:

1 Ivan Dominguez (Cub) Toyota - United Pro Cycling Team 2.30.18 (45.43 km/h)

2 Nicholas Sanderson (Aus) Jelly Belly Cycling Team

3 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner

4 Richard England (Aus) Bissell Pro Cycling

5 Serguei Koudentsov (Rus) GE Trek - Marco Polo Cycling Team

6 Danilo Wyss (Swi) BMC Racing Team

7 Bradley McGee (Aus) Team CSC

8 Gregory Henderson (NZl) Team High Road

9 Aaron Kemps (Aus) Astana

10 Karl Menzies (Aus) Health Net Presented By Maxxis

11 Cody Stevenson (Aus) Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling Team

12 Matt Rice (Aus) Jelly Belly Cycling Team

13 Taylor Tolleson (USA) BMC Racing Team

14 Oscar Sevilla (Spa) Rock Racing

15 Dominique Rollin (Can) Toyota - United Pro Cycling Team

16 Hilton Clarke (Aus) Toyota - United Pro Cycling Team

17 Jonathan Cantwell (Aus) Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling Team

18 Chris Horner (USA) Astana

Is that 9 Aussies ahead of Chris? Is that Bradley McGee I see before me? And Sanderson - great result in 2nd place. Tomorrow will sort the guys out, this was too short, more like a crit than a road race...

Follow the Tour de Georgia by GPS and satellite

Interesting take on the Tour de Georgia... from above, from the ground, by GPS, by Flickr... you name it. It's awesome, really. A great concept, mashing together a GPS-tracker with video and still picture feeds and a chatroom. Shame about the lame US comedy commentating team...


The screenshot gives you an idea.