Janez Brajkovic, left, held off the challengers to win the 2007 Tour de Georgia on Sunday, becoming the first non-US cyclist to win the 5-year-old bike race.
Meanwhile, Argentinian sprinter Juan Jose Haedo repeated last year's feat by winning the last stage of the Tour, which ended in Atlanta with a 77-mile criterium race.
The overall win by the 23-year-old Discovery Channel cyclist from Slovenia is just one indicator of the growing international flavor of this stage tour, which has been dominated by Americans in previous years. Other winners were Chris Horner (2003), Lance Armstrong (2004), Tom Danielson (2005), and Floyd Landis (2006).
For instance, no Americans wore the yellow jersey this year. Italian Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff) wore if for the first two stages, followed by Spain's David Canada of Saunier Duval after that odd breakaway victory on Wednesday, and Brajkovic from Thursday through the finale.
The US riders turned in three stage victories, two from Discovery Channel's Levi Leipheimer and one from Predictor Lotto's Freddie Rodriguez. The others were Contrini, Serbia's Ivan Stevic, Belgium's Gianni Meersman, and Haedo.
The overall win by Brajkovic also marked the third year that the squad currently sponsored by Discovery Channel has won; previous winners were Armstrong and Danielson. Brajkovic turned pro with Discovery in July 2006.
The stage winner, Haedo, has been at the front of the pack on more than one occasion in final sprints in this year's tour. Last year, Haedo rode for continental team Toyota-United, but caught the eye of Team CSC after winning two stages at the 2006 Tour of California and the finale at last year's Tour de Georgia.
Multimedia
Check out YouTube for the last 10 minutes of Sunday's finish in Atlanta.
Top 3 on the stage:
1. Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC
2. Fred Rodriguez (USA) Predictor-Lotto
3. Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Navigators Insurance
Top 3 on General Classification
1 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Discovery Channel
2 Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC
3 David Canada (Spa) Saunier Duval – Prodir
Sprint Jersey: Juan José Haedo
Young Rider: Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Discovery Channel
Most Aggressive: Glen Chadwick (US), Navigators
More results at CyclingNews and VeloNews.
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