The peloton must have learned its lesson from the day before at the Tour de Georgia, and closed the gap to a three-man breakaway before arriving in Rome for the Stage 2 finish.
The cyclists from Jittery Joes, Navigators Insurance and Priority Health gained as much as 9 minutes on the main group during the 135-mile stage between Thomaston and Rome before they were reeled in.
The stage ended with three circuits around Rome, and Toyota-United's Ivan Stevic attacked on the last lap with enough staying power to propel him to victory. Juan Jose Haedo (Team CSC) and Fred Rodriguez (Predictor-Lotto) finished in second and third, respectively.
In a post-race interview with Stevic, CyclingNews reports that the Toyota-United team took a page from Discovery's Yaroslav Popovych victory in Rome last year and attacked in the same place, Clocktower Hill in Rome, and with the same success.
Stevic is the Serbian National Champion.
Retain yellow
The Stage 1 winner, Italian Daniele Contrini of Tinkoff Systems, finished well enough on Tuesday to retain the yellow leader's jersey; Portland's Doug Ollenershaw remains in second. US-rider Ben Jacques-Maynes of the Priority Health Cycling team holds the mountains jersey, and John Devine of the USA National Development Team leads the Best Young Rider competition.
Check back to CyclingNews or VeloNews for full results.
Stage 2 looked like it might be a repeat of the first day's stage when Austin King of Jittery Joe's, Glen Chadwick of Navigators Insurance, and Garrett Peltonen of Priority Health gained a huge lead over the peloton.
In Stage 1, Contrini joined a breakaway that lasted — except for a couple of drop-outs — to the finish line.
(Northwest cycling fans alert: VeloNews has a gnarly picture of Mulkiteo, Washington, racer Ian McKissick doing a face plant onto a sidewalk in Rome during a crash. He's reported to be OK.)
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