THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
McCartney takes epic stage win in Georgia
Jason McCartney shot out of a six-man breakaway with more than 32km remaining to win the epic 137.5-mile fifth stage of the Dodge Tour de Georgia on Friday.
The Health Net-Maxxis rider made his move on the fourth of five classified climbs as the break's lead over a U.S. Postal-driven chase began to dwindle, from six minutes to four.
His gamble paid off – McCartney crossed the finish line alone, 53 seconds ahead of a splintered, 34-rider group that included overall GC contenders Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor); Jens Voigt and Bobby Julich (CSC); and Chris Horner (Webcor Builders).
Salvatore Commesso (Saeco-Prodir-Saunier Duval), the two-time Italian national champion, won the field sprint for second ahead of Canadian Charles Dionne (Webcor) and Voigt. With no time bonuses on the stage, the top eight positions in the GC remained unchanged, with Armstrong holding a 24-second advantage over Voigt and 51 seconds over Horner.
It was a heroic ride for McCartney, 30, who spent more than 90 miles during Wednesday’s stage 2 splitting duties at the front with Domina Vacanze’s Sergio Marinangeli in defense of teammate Gord Fraser’s leader’s jersey.
“I can’t believe it,” an emotional McCartney said following the biggest win in his career. “I’ve been cooked from the beginning. [Tuesday] it was just me and the guy from Domina, just trading off for 100 miles.”
After that effort McCartney was dropped from the pack and ended the stage ranked 100th out of 108 riders. Though he followed up the next day with a seventh-place finish in the time trial, just 1:27 down on Armstrong and only two seconds slower than Viatcheslav Ekimov, the reigning Olympic time trial champion, McCartney was still 10:05 down heading into the race’s longest stage, from northwestern Dalton, the carpet-manufacturing capital of the United States, to Dahlonega.
The perfect break
After a fast start produced several failed breakaways, the key move took place just 12 miles into the race, with McCartney and teammate Chris Wherry joining forces with Tour de France breakaway specialist Jacky Durand (Landbouwkredit-Colnago); American sprinter Alex Candelario (Jelly Belly); Swede Stefan Adamsson (Barloworld); and Australian hardman Henk Vogels (Navigators), showing his form in the U.S. for the first time since a horrific crash at last year’s Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic.
“Jacky wasn’t driving it too much today, he was just rolling through,” the Aussie said. “McCartney and Wherry were doing a lot of the work. Obviously they knew McCartney was on a good one today.”
It was a nearly ideal situation for Health Net, as Wherry and McCartney were the strongest climbers in the group. “It was the perfect break for what happened,” explained Health Net team director Jeff Corbett. “Jason was with a bunch of sprinters that were willing to work. When it was time to go solo, none of those guys was going to be able to stay with him. There was a lot of talent in that move, but they’re not climbers.”
Corbett couldn’t take full credit for the decision, however, explaining that Health Net rider John Lieswyn came to him the night before the stage with a plan.
“Lieswyn was the one who came to me last night and said, ‘You know, if we could put Jason in a break with a teammate, and the teammate could drive so Jason wouldn’t have to do all the work, he could win,’” Corbett said. “I thought about it overnight, and I was like, ‘You know, I think John’s got a point,’ and just tried it.
"I think Jason was a little reluctant, because he knew what kind of a workload it was going to take, but once he got out there, and got to the first sprint and the gap was six minutes, I think we started to get some believers.”
Behind the break, the battle for race leadership was somewhat muted as Armstrong’s “Blue Train” set tempo all day, allowing the leaders' advantage to grow to three minutes over the Category 2 Fort Mountain State Park, the first of five rated climbs on the day. By the time the breakaway motored into the charming town of Ellijay, the gap had swelled to 5:10 by mile 47, and Wherry, 3:47 down coming into the stage and driving the break, became race leader on the road.
That was about all Postal would concede, however, as it allowed the group to enjoy a maximum of six minutes through the rolling, lush countryside of Fannin County as young American domestiques Mike Creed and Damon Kluck drove the chase.
An unclassified steep climb around mile 60 further softened the legs of the field, causing the event’s first mass abandonment, as Lorenzo Bernucci (Landbouwkrediet), James Perry (Barloworld) and Antonio Bucciero (Saeco-Prodir-Saunier Duval) decided to call it quits.
Woody Gap (Climb 2, Category 3)
As the race approached Union County’s Three Gaps, well-known among Georgia’s cycling community as a climber’s playground, Postal continued to lead the chase, with CSC and Webcor closely patrolling the front of the field. Hundreds of enthusiastic fans awaited the riders on the freshly painted slopes of the 975-meter Woody Gap, a la L'Alpe d’Huez.
As he had at Fort Mountain, McCartney took the KOM points on the first of two passes over Woody Gap, followed by Durand, Wherry and Adamsson. The Postal-driven peloton followed through five minutes later.
Neel’s Gap (Climb 3, Category 2)
Postal began to turn the screws on the ascent of Neel’s Gap, forcing a pace that split the field in to two groups, dropping points leader Ivan Dominguez (Colavita Olive Oil) before eventually shedding three of its own: Creed, Kluck, and Antonio Cruz. McCartney again took the KOM points as his group’s gap slowly began to come down, to 4:35 at the summit.
Wolfpen Gap (Climb 4, Category 2)
It was on the short, steep, penultimate climb up Wolfpen Gap that McCartney and Horner executed the same strategy: attack. First to make his move was McCartney, who dramatically blew apart his breakaway.
“When he took off there was just no answer,” Vogels said. “He just doubled our speed and put three minutes on us in five kilometers. Unbelievable. He’s definitely the revelation of the tour.”
McCartney says he was simply following orders. Once the time gap came down to four minutes, he was told, it was time to say goodbye to his breakaway companions.
“The time gap was coming down, pretty fast, and it was coming down to four minutes,” McCartney said. “Everyone else was kinda hurting on the climb, so I just decided now was the moment to go. I had to strike out on my own.”
Adamsson had other plans in mind and tried to tag along, but McCartney wasn’t having it. “He didn’t want to come through,” McCartney said, “so I was like, ‘Um…see you later.’ He came through once, but he didn’t want to work.”
Meanwhile, four minutes back, Horner decided to show his cards and jumped the field. Postal, down to five men, didn’t flinch. “I think he was getting frustrated because the CSC guys wouldn’t attack,” said Phil Zajicek (Navigators). “He was off for about 3km, but he never got more than about 15 seconds. [Postal’s Daniel] Rincon was at the front just drilling it.”
Armstrong’s team slowly reeled in the Webcor rider while he was busy sweeping up the remnants of the breakaway. At the top of Wolfpen Postal had dropped Czech rider Pavel Padrnos; little more than 1km separated McCartney and Armstrong’s group, but it was a nearly three-minute kilometer.
“It was a good attack,” Armstrong said. “We thought it was too early, so we decided to stay together as a team and ride tempo. There was still a lot of riding to go.”
Woody Gap, Redux (Climb 5, Category 3)
By the bottom of Wolfpen Horner had been reabsorbed and the peloton headed back up Woody Gap in pursuit of McCartney, whose gap to the Armstrong group was up to 3:25, with Adamsson trailing in between. Also in the lead group were well-known domestic riders Zajicek and teammate Chris Baldwin; Ben Brooks and Adam Bergman (Jelly Belly); Dominique Perras and Tim Larkin (Ofoto); Ben Jacques-Maynes and Eric Wohlberg (Sierra Nevada); Scott Moninger, John Lieswyn and Danny Pate (Health Net); and Justin England, Charles Dionne, Imanol Ayestaran and Horner (Webcor).
Julich initiated the first of the CSC attacks early on the climb, which brought a roar from the fans as Armstrong quickly countered the move. Several minutes later Voigt had a go, but again Armstrong reeled in the move.
“Voigt and Julich were attacking Armstrong, and he had to go on the front and drill it because everyone else was pegged,” Zajicek said. “It was just him and Ekimov left, and Ekimov was a bit pegged. Rincon was dropped, and Hincapie was off.”
Noted Armstrong: “They were playing the team card. They have two guys up there on the general, so it’s logical that if I was a little bit isolated at that moment that they would start trading attacks. I’ve been in that position before, and the best thing to do is to jump on the wheel as soon as you can and let your teammates get back up to you after they’ve recovered a little. They were giving some strong accelerations.”
Dahlonega
Though a tiring McCartney lost another minute over the 15km downhill into Dahlonega, the gutsy Iowan held on to enjoy the finest moment of his cycling career, 53 seconds ahead of the charging select group. Webcor’s England attacked the bunch in the final kilometers, opening up a small gap, but couldn't keep it, and the bunch swallowed him up in the final 800 meters.
“After that it was Commesso and Voigt, they had a little gap coming into the last corner, which was at 200 meters to go,” Dionne said. “So I started from there, but I started a little bit early. I could have had more speed, but I waited too long. It was good enough for third place, so it’s good to prove I can do well in a stage like that, because it’s really long, with a lot of climbs, and I proved I can climb and I’m not just a sprinter.”
For Armstrong, the tough stage reconfirmed in his eyes that the disparity between European and domestic racing is diminishing rapidly.
“I’ve never seen a stage like that today,” Armstrong said. “The climbs weren’t very hard, but the undulations early on, it was never flat. Every time you turned a corner there was another hill, another little half-mile hill. After about 50 of them, it was like, ‘That’s enough of this.’ At one point, Cipo’ came up to me and said, ‘I’ve never seen a course like this,’ and I said, ‘I know, me neither.’ It was very tough, very tough.”
As for the elated McCartney, he declared that he must have been having a once-in-a-lifetime day because he wasn’t suffering too badly on the climbs.
“The climbs weren’t that bad, other than the first climb at the beginning of the day,” he said. “But it seems like there’s never been a tailwind for us this whole tour.”
Race notes and quotes
According to Chris Baldwin, Landbouwkredit-Colnago’s Jacky Durand flatted on Wolfpen Gap and was seen, “standing on the side of the road with his flat wheel, just waiting for somebody to give him a wheel.”
When asked if he’d eaten any special pre-race meal, McCartney replied, “Last night after dinner I took home an extra plate of pasta. It didn’t look good when I left the meal, but last night when we were watching TV I was like, ‘I gotta eat this.’ If I’m hungry during a stage race, I know I’m going good.”
Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini finished in the 30-rider gruppetto, 14:55 down, but within the time cut.
The jerseys
Leader’s “peach” jersey: Lance Armstrong, U.S. Postal Service.“All day we tried to keep a conservative tempo to keep as many guys around as long possible. On a day like that you can’t lose guys early on; it can come up and bite you in the end."
King of the Mountains jersey: Jason McCartney, Health Net-Maxxis.“Maybe I got enough points today to wrap up the jersey, I don’t know. It’s going to be a tough day tomorrow.”
Points jersey: Ivan Dominguez, Colavita Olive Oil.Dominguez came in at 34:15, 15 seconds behind the time cut, but was allowed to continue by race officials. “It was a very tough day for me. I got dropped 60 to 65km to go and it was a long way to the finish. I have to say thanks to the Webcor and Heath Net teams since I came in behind the time cut. I’m not feeling really good right now.”
Best young rider jersey: Kevin Bouchard-Hall, USA National-TIAA-CREF.Taking the best young rider jersey was bittersweet for Bouchard-Hall, who finished with the lead group, but whose teammate Craig Lewis was seriously injured during Thursday’s time trial when he was struck by a vehicle on the course. Lewis suffered broken ribs, two collapsed lungs, a broken nose, a broken pelvis and a concussion. “The person who should be wearing this is Craig. He’s our best rider on our team. Every day that we have this jersey is for Craig.”
The road ahead
Saturday’s 110km stage 6 will take riders to Hogpen Gap (1061m) before facing the steep uphill finish on Brasstown Bald Mountain, Georgia’s highest point at 1426m. Race fans reportedly began camping out on Friday for the showdown; on the nastiest sections racers will face grades of more than 20 percent.
Jeff Corbett, Health Net: “We’ll be running 27 [-tooth cassettes]. We’ve also got some 38-tooth chainrings. Other than [San Francisco’s] Fillmore, there’s nothing like it around here. My prediction for tomorrow? Ugly. Or as Mr. T would say, ‘Prediction: Pain.’”
Charles Dionne, Webcor: “Chris Horner is feeling pretty good. CSC is a little bit tired, they’ve done a lot of racing and I think they just want to get a little rest. I thought many attacks were going to come from them today, but I didn’t see anything, so I guess they’re not going to attack tomorrow either. I guess it’s either Lance or Chris, you know. Chris has good form, so it’s going to be a good show. Voigt is probably the best guy from CSC, but I don’t know how well he can go up. Postal rode hard, that’s not an easy stage to go tempo on with all the climbs. The best-case scenario for us is Lance to be isolated pretty fast.”
Phil Zajicek, Navigators: “I’m nervous because I only have a 39x25. It’s going to be a battle tomorrow between Horner and Armstrong. I think Horner’s going to ride away from Armstrong and win the tour tomorrow.”
Lance Armstrong, U.S. Postal Service: “I haven’t seen it. I heard it’s hard.”
