THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Game over? 13-man break shakes up Tour de Georgia
Janez Brajkovic wasn’t even supposed to be at the Tour de Georgia. Originally the lithe Slovenian climber was slotted to race Pays Basque for Discovery Channel, while Tour de France veteran Jose Rubiera was coming to America.
But the 23-year-old got sick in early April, forcing a quick change in plans. Rubiera stayed in Europe to contest the Spanish stage race, with Brajkovic taking the trans-Atlantic flight to the Peach State. Now, following one of the strangest days in recent U.S. cycling history, a recovered Brajkovic is among the favorites to win the seven-day race around Georgia.
Meanwhile, teammate Gianni Meersman scored the first victory of his young career, continuing Discovery’s assault on the early portions of the 2007 racing season, and Spaniard David Gracia Cañada (Saunier Duval-Prodir) took over the race lead, snatching the yellow jersey from stage 1 winner Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff Credit Systems).
Brajkovic, Meersman and Cañada were all part of a 13-rider breakaway that rolled off the front of the peloton early in the 118.2-mile run from Rome to Chattanooga — and never came back. The final time gap was a whopping 29:07, effectively eliminating the rest of the 114-rider field from overall GC contention.
“This was my lucky day,” admitted Brajkovic, who spent time in the leader’s jersey at last year’s Vuelta a España. “Coming to this race was coincidence. I was sick before the race for nine days with a fever and I didn’t train much. I didn’t know what condition I would be. At the start [of the breakaway] I was a little worried because the gap kept growing and we have two very strong guys that are capable of winning the race. But now I am confident that I can do a good result in the time trial and on Brasstown.”
Cañada and Brajkovic were second and third on the stage that was won in 4:33:18 on a warm, sunny day in northern Georgia and southern Tennessee. Others to make the decisive selection included Americans Christian Vande Velde (CSC), Tim Johnson and Jeff Louder (both Health Net-Maxxis), Kevin Seeldrayers (Quick Step-Innergetic), Scott Nydam (BMC), Rubens Bertogliati (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Lucas Euser (Slipstream-Chipotle), Ivan Santaromita (Quick Step), Tyler Wren (Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home) and Ciaran Power (Navigators Insurance).
For the rest of the field it was a day of what-if’s and why’s. When the break — which started with 16 riders — rolled off in the opening hour of the race, no one expected it to stay away. Initially the gap hung around a minute, before coming all the way down to 30 seconds primarily because of the work of Predictor-Lotto, one of several teams that missed out. But the Belgian squad didn’t get much help, and with a motivated group working hard in front of them, the chase was soon shut down.
From there the gap shot up quickly. It was just 45 seconds 33 miles in, but all the way to 2:50 at 38.8 miles. Less than 20 miles later it was 9:30 and the writing was on the wall. Out the door was all the talk of Discovery’s Tom Danielson repeating his 2005 win here. Forgotten was any chance of seeing Tyler Hamilton (Tinkoff) make a dramatic return to U.S. racing.
“Certain things happen that you cannot foresee,” admitted Discovery director Johann Bruyneel. “Our mission was to be represented in all breaks that go up the road. The break was good for us so we let it go. There were other teams with nobody there or not the guys they wanted up there. We had Brajkovic who was one of three protected riders in this race.
“Sure, Tom will be disappointed but that’s the way the race goes. If you have a breakaway and you have two guys in there, and the rest of the teams decide they don’t want to win the race, that’s too bad. They are the losers.”
Among those who missed the break was Toyota-United. The U.S. domestic team earned a stage win a day earlier with Ivan Stevic in Rome, but were caught out on this day.
“We had a standing order to cover moves of this size, but after all the work we did the last two days there were very few left who could have gotten up there,” said team director Harm Jansen. “Today was not a standard development, but it’s bike racing. I don’t think we made any mistakes today. It allows us and a lot of others to give it a shot on Brasstown. That’s going to be an interesting stage because we now have five riders that could go up that climb well, and may get the freedom because the GC teams won’t be worrying about them.”
Others missing from the final break included Contrini’s Tinkoff team, Priority Health-Bissell, Jittery Joe’s and the U.S. national team.
“It was a pretty strange day,” said Health Net director Jeff Corbett. “It’s not often that you see that. But most of the teams were represented in the break, and the few that weren’t just didn’t want to play I guess.”
After working well together for much of the stage, which included four rated climbs (a pair of 4s and two 3s) the breakaway group’s members finally started attacking each other on the day’s final ascent, the cat. 3 Burkhalter Gap.
“Lotto was chasing hard and I thought it was going to be over,” recalled Louder. “But the whole group worked all day. Yeah, they didn’t chase us after a while, but the reason the gap went so big was because the whole group worked together and no one skipped turns. Everyone was coming through real even. There was no game-playing until the very end.”
Those games started when Santaromita and Bertogliata attacked on the final ascent. They quickly got a 15-second gap, but it was short-lived. Meersman, Cañada, Vande Velde, Louder, Brajkovic, Seeldraeyers and Nydam all bridged across and then the end game began in the final 5km, on the run into Chattanooga.
“There was some game-playing and no one wanted to commit,” said Louder. “Vande Velde was doing hard work. Janez was working and Meersman was helping. It was just everyone working well together. Then we caught the two that were away and it all fanned out. I took off with 5k and got a decent gap. I was hoping they’d let it go but I got caught on the overpass with about 3k to go. At about 150 meters Meersman came by me and that was it.”
That was also it for most of the field, which spent the afternoon in Sunday drive mode, and will now be left to contest stage wins, the GC long gone in the distance.
Race notes
Navigators’ Power crashed hard on the descent into Chattanooga and was taken the hospital for a CAT scan after the finish. “He didn’t know where he was,” said Navigators team director Ed Beamon. “I think he’s going to be fine, but it’s just precautionary… Discovery Channel’s Jason McCartney remains in a hospital in Atlanta undergoing tests. A team staffer said that he has been having severe headaches and that doctors have done two lumbar punctures attempting to find out what the issue is. One possibility is viral meningitis, but doctors remain unsure. McCartney’s wife is flying in tonight to be with him.
Tour de Georgia — stage 3
1. Gianni Meersman, Discovery Channel, 4:33:18
2. David Canada Gracia, Saunier Duval, 4:33:19
3. Janez Brajkovic, Discovery Channel, 4:33:19
4. Christian Vande Velde, Team CSC, 4:33:19
5. Kevin Seeldraeyers, Quick Step-Innergetic, 4:33:19
6. Jeff Louder, Health Net Maxxis, 4:33:19
7. Scott Nydam, BMC, 4:33:19
8. Rubens Bertogliati, Saunier Duval, 4:33:19
9. Timothy Johnson, Health Net Maxxis, 4:35:38
10. Lucas Euser, Team Slipstream, 4:35:38Overall
1. David Canada Gracia, Saunier Duval, 13:34:21
2. Rubens Bertogliati, Saunier Duval, 13:34:24
3. Christian Vande Velde, Team CSC, 13:34:24
4. Janez Brajkovic, Discovery Channel, 13:24:24
5. Jeff Louder, Health Net Maxxis, 13:34:24
6. Kevin Seeldraeyers, Quick Step-Innergetic, 13:34:24
7. Scott Nydam, BMC, 13:34:44
8. Lucas Euser, Team Slipstream, 13:36:43
9. Timothy Johnson, Health Net Maxxis, 13:37:12
10. Tyler Wren, Colavita-Sutter Home, 13:38:18
To see how today's stage developed, simply click here to open our Live Update Window.
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