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England wins stage, Lowe takes yellow in Georgia

Bissell’s Aussie sprinter nips Sutherland and Hincapie in Dahlonega

Published: Apr. 25, 2008
Bissell's Richard England wins stage 5 in Georgia.
Bissell's Richard England wins stage 5 in Georgia.
Photo: © 2008 Action Images

After sitting behind a ProTour engine over 133 hilly miles, Bissell’s Richard England timed his sprint right to take stage 5 of the 2008 Tour de Georgia on Friday. Slipstream-Chipotle’s Trent Lowe finished in the select front group of 22 riders to take the yellow jersey from High Road’s Greg Henderson, who had a hard day and came off the group on the second KOM climb.

With the finish coming 150 meters after a left-hander atop a hill, it was all about getting out of the last corner first. England did just that, and finished ahead of Health Net Maxxis’ Rory Sutherland and High Road’s George Hincapie.

“I just took a risk,” England said of the final kilometer. “[Astana’s] Chris Horner jumped on the front and kept it fast. That really helped me because I was pretty close to the front and I was a bit worried I was going to get jumped. I saw somebody hit out to the left, and I just went with everything I had on the right. I knew that if I made the corner first, that, at worst, a couple of people would pass me and I would still be on the podium.”

The field broke up over the day’s final KOM, which came just 2km before the finish. England leapt out of a group containing 22 riders, including Astana’s Levi Leipheimer, Rock Racing’s Oscar Sevilla, Slipstream-Chipotle’s Trent Lowe, Dave Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde.

Coming into the last corner, Sutherland was the rider England saw jump on the left.

“At about 500 to go I followed someone around because I knew that I was too far back,” Sutherland said. “You come in and you start thinking, ‘I gotta move up or I can’t do it.’ I saw 200 to go and went.”

Sutherland ceded England was the better sprinter, and said the Bissell rider also had better line through the turn by coming into the left-hand corner on the right.

“He got a gap on me there,” Sutherland said. “He knew that he had to get through the corner first and so did I.”

Third-placed Hincapie said the team knew it was going to be a hard day that wasn’t ideal for Henderson. “So we decided early on that the team would ride for me,” Hincapie said. “I misjudged the finish. I should have been first through the last turn. I wish I had remembered the finish better from last year. I’m disappointed, I didn’t deliver.”

For his part, Henderson said he started the day feeling pretty good, but something happened on the second climb. “I’m not sure if it was low blood sugar or what, but it was lights out.”

Henderson eventually finished 94th, 15:12 behind England.

The longest leg of this year's race, stage 5 began in Suwannee and scaled three Cat. 3 climbs — Burnt Mountain, Woody Gap and Crown Mountain — before finishing in Dahlonega.

The breaks came early and often, before a four-man group — Tim Johnson (Health Net-Maxxis), Teddy King (Bissell), Cam Evans (Symmetrics) and Valery Kobzrenko (Team Type 1) — finally snapped the elastic.

Tim Johnson (Health Net) leads the break.
Tim Johnson (Health Net) leads the break.
Photo: © 2008 Action Images

Johnson had taken a couple of digs before the right move went. He was given the most aggressive jersey for his efforts on the day.

“I went and [CSC’s Jason] McCartney was like, ‘Tim, go, go, go,’” said Johnson, recounting how McCartney had sat up at the front to block.

“Nobody from the ProTour could be in the break,” said Johnson’s teammate Frank Pipp, who wore the KOM jersey. “Whichever ProTour team attacked was chased by the others.”

But with four North American pro teams in the move, the group was given a leash, and went on to build a gap of more than 11 minutes.

Astana patrolled the front all day, aided by Slipstream-Chipotle and High Road. By the 100-mile mark the break’s lead had been cut in half. With 20km to race their lead was just over two minutes, with a steady drizzle falling.

A number of riders abandoned on the day, including Henk Vogels and Ben Day (Toyota-United), Kirk O’Bee (Health Net-Maxxis), Emile Abraham (Team Type 1) and Sergey Koudentsov (Marco Polo).

Ten kilometers from the line the escapees had just 90 seconds over the chase, and the rain was tapering off. With 4km to go their margin was a single minute.

And then, with a kilometer to the KOM and the chase closing in, Johnson attacked. He took a quick gap over his erstwhile companions — but it was too little, too late, as the chase absorbed the disintegrating quartet going over the top of Crown Mountain.

“It was a bit of a doozy,” said Evans, the 24-year-old Canadian road champ. “We just got caught on the last KOM hill. At that point we had been out there for 200km. I just pretty much sat up at that point.”

As it had all day, Astana continued to drive it to keep Leipheimer out of trouble and try to put others in trouble.

“Dude, it was so friggin’ fast,” said BMC’s Taylor Tolleson after the finish. “Those [Astana] boys rode an impressive day. I had some bad luck and flatted with 5km to go. Right when I caught onto the group at the hill, it split, and I didn’t make it.”

In his first Tour de Georgia, Tolleson was clearly enjoying himself.

“I’ve always raced in Europe this time of year,” he said. “I think it’s a really great race —great organization, great weather. I really like it.”

Team Bissell clearly likes it, too.

Bissell’s King took the KOM jersey, giving the American team two spots on the day’s podium. It was three years ago on this very stage that King was airlifted out of the race after being hit by a car in the caravan. He said he wasn’t thinking about that day while racing, instead focusing on the task at hand.

England had a similar focus at the finish.

“I went around that last corner,” he said, “went down to the bottom of my cassette, and just went as hard as I could.”

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