You can't blame some of these cyclists from the continental teams for attacking early and getting a little glory in Stage 1 of the Tour de Georgia before the big boys from Discovery Channel, Team CSC, Prodir-Saunier, QuickStep and Predictor-Lotto take over.
But a funny thing happened on the way to Macon; riders from Navigators, Health Net, Tinkoff and BMC put together a little five-man breakaway that gained an 8-minute gap on the peloton at one point and propelled three of its members to win, place and show.
Italian cyclist Daniele Contrini from the new Tinkoff Credit Systems team won the stage, followed by Portland resident Doug Ollerenshaw for Health Net and Australian Ben Day for Navigators Insurance.
Early breaks
After some attempted breakaways from Colavita, Jittery Joe's and Health Net shortly after the riders left Peachtree City on the 97-mile stage, it was Viktor Rapinski of Navigators who finally made a successful attack, later to be joined by Contrini, Ollerenshaw, Day and Mike Sayers of BMC.
A strong tailwind gave the breakaway the advantage over the peloton, as did a crash approaching Macon. The main group finally picked up the fading Rapinski and Sayers on the three circuits around Macon, but couldn't challenge the remaining three.
At the end of the day, the leaders in the various competitions are:
General Classification: Contrini
Best Young Rider: Tommy Nankervis, Australia, Jittery Joes
Sprints: Contrini (Victor Rapinski of Navigators finished 2nd)
Leading Teams: Tinkoff, Health Net, and Navigators
Just about all the favorites — Tom Danielson, Levi Leipheimer, Tyler Hamilton, David Zabriskie, etc. — finished in the peloton and are 1-minute and 22 seconds behind at the end of the first stage.
Full results at CyclingNews and VeloNews.
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