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Last year's best young rider in the Tour de France is this year's leading bike racer at the Ford Tour de Georgia … for now.
Discovery Channel's Yaroslav Popovych won the 116-mile stage Wednesday that ended with four climbs over the Clocktower Hill in Rome. The win by the 26-year-old Ukrainian put him in first place overall.
Popovych attacked on the final climb to beat Juan Jose Haedo (Toyota-United Pro) and Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto); the pair were runners up in Tuesday's Stage 1 as well.
The Triplets from Belleville award (I'm thinking of the cyclist slogging along on his own for hours on end) goes to Argentinian cyclist Alejandro Acton (Target Training) who rode a 100-mile solo breakaway. Acton cycled alone across miles of Georgia highway and through thunderstorms, only to be caught about 6 miles from the finish. He also won the most aggressive rider award.
Overall, Rodriguez earned the sprint jersey and Kirk O'Bee (Health Net-Maxxis) wears the mountains jersey.
Stage 3
At the end of Wednesday, 30 seconds separated the 1st place and 52nd place cyclists overall. That's bound to change with Thursday's individual time trial from Chickamauga, Georgia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The 24-mile stretch has several stiff climbs as well as a steep descent near the finish. It will be interesting to see if the teams go with straight time trial bikes, or modify their road racers for this stage.
Overall, Floyd Landis (Phonak) sits in 9th, Tom Danielson (Discovery) is 11th, Trent Wilson (Jittery Joes) is 13th, David Zabriskie (CSC) is 18th, and Nathan O'Neill (Health Net) is 25th. Landis took the Tour of California lead on the ITT stage and never looked back.
More race information at VeloNews and CyclingNews.
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