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Tour de Georgia - 2.1
USA, April 19-24, 2005
Main Page Results & report Stage Details Previous Stage Next Stage
Stage 3 - April 21: Rome time trial, 29.9km
Commentary by Kristy Scrymgeour, with additional reporting from Mark Zalewski and Eddie Monnier
Complete live report
10:56 EDT
Welcome to the Cyclingnews live coverage
of the Dodge Tour de Georgia. Its stage three today and we have the time trial
that starts and finishes in the town of Rome, where the stage finished yesterday.
Starting outside of the Darlington school, the course heads south west along
Blacks Bluff Road before taking a right turn to cross the river heading north
East back along Horseleg Creek Road and Mt Alto road towards downtown Rome.
It is the same course as last year and you might remember that nasty 2km climb
up Mt Alto the riders had to battle with.
11:05 EDT
We are now underway and Jonathan Page
(Colavita) is the first rider off the start blocks. Actually the start order
for the time trial is reverse order of GC and the Colavita team have most of
their riders starting early as so far they have not had a good time of it in
this tour.
The Cyclingnews correspondent on the start line, Mark
Zalewski spoke with Aaron Olson from Colavita to find our their story. He said
that they just haven't been riding that well and they're not sure why. They
all seem to be feeling better today and are aiming for a stage win at some time
in the next four days. Olson is motivated for the time trial and hoping to have
a good ride today.
11:09 EDT
The weather is a little overcast today
but its still warm! There are big crowds at the start line, mostly gathered
around the Discovery bus hoping to get a look at Lance. Lance hasn't arrived
yet as he doesn't start until 1pm.
11:11 EDT
There is a slight breeze out on the
course but nothing very strong at this point. It might pick up as the day goes
on. The first half of the course will be predominately a cross tail wind meaning
that the riders face a cross headwind towards the finish.
11:13 EDT
Riders are going off at one minute
intervals with the last 10 riders at two minute intervals.
11:16 EDT
Juan Jose Haedo has just started.
He is the 15th riders to start. He's having a great season to date and we can
expect big things from him in the future.
11:20 EDT
A lot of you have been asking for
full GC results from yesterday and a start list for today. We don't have the
results yet but we will post them as soon as we have them.
11:22 EDT
Cyclingnews talked to Eric Wohlberg
(Symmetrics) who is a very good time trialer, having represented Canada in multiple
Olympic Games and World Championships. He said "I'd be lying if I said I feel
good, but I'm going to try for a top 15 or 20 today."
11:24 EDT
Its now raining at the start! Will
will make it interesting out there on the course.
11:26 EDT
We spoke with Saul Raisin (Credit
Agricole) who is now placed second in the U23 category. He said he's keeping
an eye on that but he is also concetrating on overall GC and hopes to place
in the top 15.
11:30 EDT
Many of the Euro teams only brought
a couple of Time Trial bikes to the race because its so hard to get all their
equipment over here. We spoke with Phonak and today Floyd Landis and Robbie
Hunter (race leader) will be riding time trial bikes, but the rest of the guys
will be using their road bike with bars.
11:31 EDT
Jonathan Page has just turned onto
the Mt Alto road and is heading up the climb.
From the summit he'll have
10km to go.
11:34 EDT
A lot of the sprinters and non-GC
guys will only be riding at about 80% out there today, making sure they dont
use themselves up for the days to come. We talked to Gord Fraser about that,
who laughed and said he'll be going at 80%, "but my 80% is other guys' 40%."
11:35 EDT
Page has reached the summit with a
time of 11'31"48. It is really coming down now and the roads are going to be
slick, especially on the descent coming off the climb. There is a sharp turn
near the bottom. We talked to Johny Sundt (Jittery Joe's) who said he nearly
overshot that corner last year. Now with the rain, the guys are going to have
to take care.
11:39 EDT
This is also where equipment is important.
We talked to Steve Hed from Hed Wheels who does a lot of work with Lance Armstrongs
time trial bike. He said that his wheels are light, but not so light that they
don't have a good breaking area.
11:40 EDT
Ian MacGregor (TIAA CREF) has just
taken a spill out on the course, but he is not hurt and he's back up and on
course.
11:42 EDT
Jonathan Page has just reached the
14 mile mark (22.4km), with a time of 37'48" and is on the home run.
11:44 EDT
Jason McCartney has just started his
time trial. This course holds good memories for him as he placed 7th here last
year just the day before he won that awesome stage with his solo breakaway.
McCartney is the first rider from Discovery to start today. He is followed by
Irish Champion, David O'Laughlin (Navigators).
11:55 EDT
John Lieswyn (Health Net) and Hayden
Godfrey (Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada) have started. Godfrey comes from Sea Otter
where he placed third in the prologue behind Fraser and Wherry.
11:57 EDT
Mark Quigley from Ireland has written
in to say good luck to O'Laughlin being a good friend of his. He actually said
that he used O'Laughlin's old TT bike in a race last week and won!
12:00 EDT
The sprint leader, Greg Henderson
(Health Net) has just started his time trial. The rain has stopped now but the
roads are still wet. It will probably dry out later in the day. Obviously the
guys riding the wet road are at a disadvantage, but thats just cycling.
12:01 EDT
Mariano Friedick (Jelly Belly/Cool
Gel) has just reached the intermediate mark with a time of 31'41"85.
12:04 EDT
We caught up with Australian Time
Trial Champion, Nathan O'Neill, who now lives in Georgia. He is very focussed,
warming up listening to his MP3 player in his new Oakley glasses. O'Neill is
an excellent time trialer and is hoping for a top five position today.
12:15 EDT
Well, its started sprinkling again.
These roads don't look like they're going to dry out.
12:18 EDT
It looks like Christian Muller (CSC)
has the fastest intermediate time so far. He posted a time of 29'29"77.
Tim Johnson (Jittery Joe's) has just started.
12:22 EDT
The top ten in the general classification
after yesterdays stage are:
1 Robert Hunter, (Phonak) 10:34:11.
2
Peter Wrolich, (Gerolsteiner) same time.
3 Manuel Quinziato, (Saunier Duval)
10:34:15.
4 Benjamin Brooks, (Jelly Belly), same time.
5 Lance Armstrong,
(Discovery), 10:34:17.
6 Michele Maccanti, (LPR), same time.
8 Danilo
Napolitano, (LPR), 10:34:19.
9 Mauro Santambrogio, (LPR), 10:34:20.
10 Bobby Julich, (CSC), 10:34:21.
12:29 EDT
We talked to Jonathan Vaughters, team
director of TIAA CREF who is famous for making his pre-race predictions. He
actually thinks Tom Danielson is going to take the win today. He says its between
Armstrong, Danielson and Bobby Julich, but Danielson is his pick.
We talked to Discovery who say that Tom Danielson's job today is to be out there
posting fast times so that Lance has some time splits to go on when he's on
the road.
12:30 EDT
The time posted before for Christian
Muller was his split at the intermediate time split marker.
12:32 EDT
Ivan Fanelli (LPR) has just finished
with a time of 45'73"64.
12:36 EDT
The fastest finish time so far has
been posted by Justin England (Health Net) with a time of 43'00"83. This is
just over three minutes slower than Lance's time from last year. The times are
likely to be a little slower than last year with the rain, but we will see some
times a lot faster than that yet.
12:38 EDT
We have a new fastest time from Jeff
Louder (Navigators). He did a 42'59"01.
Saul Raisin is in the start
blocks, and will be followed by Ekimov.
12:41 EDT
Danielson is warming up now. Officials
are standing by the measure all the bikes at the start line to make sure they
meet the UCI standards.
12:41 EDT
Floyd Landis (Phonak) is also warming
up.
12:44 EDT
Levi Leipheimer is on the start line
now, ready to take off. It has started raining again.
12:48 EDT
FOr all of you who are writing in
with time corrections. The initial result of Mariano Friedick I posted was his
intermediate split. I apologise for that. It has now been corrected. We have
a new fastest time of 41'47"05, posted by Nathan O'Neill (Health Net).
12:50 EDT
Bobby Julich is just finishing with
his time trial. Cyclingnews correspondent Eddie Monnier is going to ride in
the CSC team car today following Julich who should be started in a few minutes.
12:55 EDT
Bobby is underway. The first turn
was very slippery. The rain is really light but the road is completely wet.
12:57 EDT
Another correction. The fastest time
was not set by Nathan O'Neill, but by David O'Laughlin. O'Neill has not finished
yet. O'Laughlin still holds the fastest time at 41'47"05.
12:58 EDT
We now have a new best time of 41'46"10,
posted by Brian Vanborg (CSC).
13:02 EDT
Bobby is looking good. He is moving
around on his seat trying to get comfortable.
13:05 EDT
David Zabriskie (CSC) will be arriving
at the finish line soon. He has just broken the fastest split time at the intermediate
split. It was 27'32"94 and will be arriving at the finish line shortly.
13:06 EDT
Nathan O'Neill crossed the intermidiate
split with the second best time.
Zabriskie is coming to the finish
now.........
13:07 EDT
A new best time of 40'17"06 for Zabriskie
of CSC. Zabriskie is US National Time Trial Champion.
13:14 EDT
Bobby has about 14km to go and is
approaching the climb.
Nathan O'Neill has come home in second fastest
time of 40'41"09 with Zabriskie still in the lead.
13:19 EDT
Top three at the moment are Zabriskie,
O'Neill and O'Laughlin.
Eric Wohlberg's time was 43'10"27
13:22 EDT
Lance is on the road and into his
time trial. Meanwhile Bobby Julich has just gone over the top of the climb.
His time at the top was four seconds behind Zabriskie's time. He looks smooth
and solid.
13:23 EDT
There are a lot of spectators on the
climb despite the rain. It is a stepping climb and it even dips down in one
section before spiking back up again.
13:23 EDT
Floyd Landis has posted the new fastest
time of 39'58"09!!!!!!!!!
13:28 EDT
We heard CSC director Scott Sunderland
before the stage, who said:
”Bobby once again showed he has big ambitions
in this race. He was very alert during the difficult final part of the stage,
and he positioned himself well, when other riders tried to attack. Ahead of
us is a time trial, which could decide the race, and the battle between Bobby
and Lance will be very interesting to follow. I believe we have a good chance
of putting several riders among the best in this stage.”
13:29 EDT
Floyd's fastest time is six seconds
off Lance's time from last year, but considering the rain, it could be in with
a chance of the winning time.
13:30 EDT
Lance is just about to catch his two
minute man!
13:32 EDT
We have a split for Lance at the intermediate.
His time was 28'34"59 which is about a minute slower than Bobby at the same
point.
13:33 EDT
Bobby has just rolled across the line.
He posted a 40'26" which puts him in fourth place.
13:34 EDT
The new top five so far are:
Landis, Zabriskie, Baldwin, Julich, O'Neil
13:38 EDT
Chris Baldwin (Navigators), former
US National Time Trial Champion has also posted a great time putting him in
third place at this point!
13:40 EDT
We just has a word with Floyd after
his ride. We asked him how he felt about his fastest time and about having one
minute up on Lance at the intermediate. His reply: "How would you feel about
that?" He's very happy. He says he's not totally surprised with his ride but
he's waiting to see how his time will hold up.
13:42 EDT
The crowds are huge at the finish
and screaming as Lance comes into the finish. He has finished in a time of......
13:43 EDT
41'44"87. That is place for Lance.
13:43 EDT
That would be 9th place for Lance!
13:45 EDT
It looks like Floyd might be our winner.
We still need a check on Danielson's time. He's done a 40'58" putting him in
about 6th place from my calculations.
13:46 EDT
LANDIS IS OUR WINNER!!!
13:49 EDT
Race leader Robbie Hunter is still
on the road.
13:50 EDT
as well as Peter Wrolich.
13:52 EDT
Hunter has just finished with a time
of 42'15" which is 15th place in the stage.
13:54 EDT
Phonak will be defending the leaders
jersey tomorrow, but unfortunately with one less rider. They lost a rider today.
Jose Enrique Guiterrez is out with a knee injury. Phonak will start with six
riders tomorrow.
13:59 EDT
Thanks for listening everyone. Sorry
for my initial typo on Floyds time. I know he's fast, but not that fast. Stay
tuned for full results, which we will hopefully have very soon.
Preliminary results
1 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak 39'58"09 2 Dave Zabriskie (USA) CSC 40'17"06 3 Chris Baldwin (USA) Navigators 40.20.03 4 Bobby Julich (USA) CSC 40'26"00 5 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Navigators 40'41"09 6 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery 40'58"
