BiciRace.com :: 2006 Tour of Georgia

2006 Tour of Georgia, Stage 6

Tour of Georgia, USA

Stage 6, Cumming - Alpharetta, 190.2K

23 April

Haedo Takes Final Stage and Landis GC

JJ Jaedo Wins Final Stage, photo: Tour of Georgia

Juan José Haedo (Toyota-United Pro) nailed the final stage of the 2006 Tour of Georgia, blasting Gord Fraser () and Aurélien Clerc (Phonak) at the end of the 190K run. No-Fuss Floyd Landis (Phonak) maintained his overall lead to win the GC, adding to his earlier Tour of California and Paris-Nice GC wins.

Little known Juan José Haedo (Toyota-United Pro) manhandled some of the best sprinters in the world today to take the 6th and final stage of this year's Ford Tour de Georgia. Under the 1K banner it was the Discovery juggernaut controlling affairs with four riders on the front. Health Net-Maxxis was there for their fastman, Gord Fraser as was Fast Freddie (Davitamon-Lotto), albeit without any teammates. With 200 meters the fast Argentine, JJ Haedo jumped 'em all and caught them napping taking the victory in the process. No-Fuss Floyd Landis (Phonak) maintained his overall lead to win the GC, adding to his earlier Tour of California and Paris-Nice GC wins.

The day's parcours would feature the category 3 Burnt Mountain climb at about the 48K marker. Followed by that it was flat highway pretty much all the way to the finish. The final 36K of the race consisted of a 6K circuit around the streets of Alpharetta. On paper this was custom made for the fastmen.

The first break of the day included nine riders, one of whom was the man himself, race leader Floyd Landis (Phonak). Needless to say this break wouldn't be given much breathing room due to the presence of Landis. Predictably, the break was reeled in quickly.

Floyd Landis Lets the Bubbly Flow, photo: Tour of Georgia

Next off the front was a group of 16 riders. In it were Danny Pate, Craig Lewis, William Frischkorn (TIAA-CREF), Tim Johnson, Mike Sayers, Jeff Louder (Health Net-Maxxis), Sean Sullivan (Toyota-United Pro), Piotr Mazur (Prodir-Saunier Duval), Nick Reistad, Caleb Manion (Jelly Belly), Phil Zajicek (Navigators), Frank Pipp (Targetraining), Allan Johansen (CSC), Leonardo Scarselli (Quick-Step) and Scott Swizanski (Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada)

Fifteen minutes into the break, their advantage had grown to 4', mainly due to the fact that it included no danger men on the general classification. Phonak sat comfortably on the front policing affairs, but not doing anything more than absolutely necessary.

The break went in to the category 3 Burnt Mountain climb with a 5' advantage in hand. Scarselli crested the climb first followed by Tim Johnson and Manion.

With about 70K to go the gap began to tumble at the hands of the Davitamon-Lotto led chase. There was a $2500 bonus for the winner of the first sprint at kilometer 26 and it was Polish rider Piotr Mazur who pocketed the cash.

The break eventually splintered into two groups of seven riders apiece. In the front group, it was the Health Net-Maxxis boys and Allan Johansen prodding Scarselli to contribute to the break. Even with their fastman, Gord Fraser back in the peloton, Health Net-Maxxis was still driving the pace.

Into the streets of Alpharetta the break had re-joined, but only briefly. Once the first of the 6K circuits began it was Frischkorn and Louder that flew the coup. The two riders quickly opened up a 20" gap on the break and still had about 2'32" on the peloton. The break could feel the heat of the chasing peloton and threw in the towel, but the duo carried on. At this point it was Davitamon-Lotto and Toyota-United Pro that were spearheading the chase and causing the duo's lead to whither away slowly but surely.

Sure enough the two riders got caught, at which point Piotr Mazur took a dig, only to have Frischkorn jump on the back of him. Marco Pinotti (Prodir-Saunier Duval) then joined the two riders. The peloton was smoking along at 53Kph and reeled in the three riders. David Zabriskie (CSC) made a late desperate move, but was caught quickly.

The riders flew under the 1K banner and it was Health Net-Maxxis and Discovery heading affairs. Ekimov pulled off after his turn on the front with around 200 meters to go. JJ Haedo jumped around at the last second to take the win. Landis maintained his margin and took the overall win ahead of Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) and Yaroslav Popovych (Discovery Channel).

Results: 4:37'44"
1 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Toyota-United Pro 2 Gord Fraser (Can) Health Net-Maxxis 3 Aurélien Clerc (Swi) Phonak 4 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Davitamon-Lotto 5 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel 6 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) Kodakgallery.com-Sierra 7 Alex Candelario (USA) Jelly Belly 8 Alejandro Acton (Arg) Targetraining 9 Matthew Rice (Aus) Jelly Belly 10 Jesse Anthony (USA) Kodakgallery.com-Sierra 11 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Quick-Step 12 Antonio Cruz (USA) Toyota-United Pro 13 Viktor Rapinski (Blr) Colavita 14 Cesar Grajales (Col) Navigators 15 Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators 16 Gustavo Artacho (Arg) Colavita 17 Wesley Hartman (USA) Targetraining 18 Jakob Piil (Den) Team CSC 19 Valery Kobzarenko (Ukr) Navigators 20 Dan Bowman (USA) TIAA-CREF 21 José Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) Phonak 22 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Discovery Channel 23 Evan Elken (USA) Jittery Joe's-Zero Gravity 24 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel 25 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 26 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak 27 Austin King (USA) Jittery Joe's-Zero Gravity 28 Christophe Rinero (Fra) Prodir-Saunier Duval 29 Neil Shirley (USA) Jittery Joe's-Zero Gravity 30 Nick Gates (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto ...

Nevada

Nevada

Olive Oil-Sutter Home

Olive Oil-Sutter Home

Final GC:
1 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak 24:00'54"
2 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel 0.04
3 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel 1.55
4 José Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) Phonak 2.11
5 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Discovery Channel 2.15
6 David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC 2.31
7 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Health Net-Maxxis 3.45
8 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Prodir-Saunier Duval 3.54
9 Christopher Baldwin (USA) Toyota-United Pro 4.01
10 Cesar Grajales (Col) Navigators 4.20
11 Justin England (USA) Toyota-United Pro 4.35
12 Remmert Wielinga (Ned) Quick-Step 4.43
13 Egoi Martínez (Spa) Discovery Channel 5.05
14 Brian Vandborg (Den) Team CSC 5.25
15 Viatcheslav Ekimov (Rus) Discovery Channel 6.07
16 Jurgen Van de Walle (Bel) Quick-Step 6.59
17 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Phonak 7.08
18 Iñigo Cuesta (Spa) Team CSC 8.11
19 Todd Wells (USA) Targetraining 8.24
20 Trent Wilson (Aus) Jittery Joe's-Zero Gravity 8.33
21 Anthony Colby (USA) Targetraining
22 Alberto Fernández De La Puebla (Spa) Prodir-Saunier Duval 8.44
23 Valery Kobzarenko (Ukr) Navigators 8.53
24 Andrew Bajadali (USA) Jelly Belly 8.58
25 Caleb Manion (Aus) Jelly Belly 9.08
26 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 9.19
27 Todd Herriott (USA) Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home 9.29
28 Piotr Mazur (Pol) Prodir-Saunier Duval 10.04
29 Trent Lowe (Aus) Discovery Channel 10.52
30 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada 11.18
31 Peter Hatton (Aus) Jittery Joe's-Zero Gravity 11.19
32 Burke Swindlehurst (USA) Navigators 11.26
33 Benjamin Noval (Spa) Discovery Channel 11.45
34 Danny Pate (USA) TIAA-CREF 11.54
35 Viktor Rapinski (Blr) Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home 13.11
36 Jeff Louder (USA) Health Net-Maxxis 13.18
37 Geert Verheyen (Bel) Quick-Step 13.37
38 Thomas Peterson (USA) TIAA-CREF 13.48
39 Jason McCartney (USA) Discovery Channel 14.03
40 Jesse Anthony (USA) Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada 14.16
41 Matthew Rice (Aus) Jelly Belly 15.38
42 Christophe Rinero (Fra) Prodir-Saunier Duval 15.57
43 Florian Stalder (Swi) Phonak 16.13
44 Nick Gates (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 16.44
45 Phil Zajicek (USA) Navigators 17.18
46 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Navigators 17.55
47 Antonio Cruz (USA) Toyota-United Pro 18.08
48 Leonardo Scarselli (Ita) Quick-Step 19.44
49 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Davitamon-Lotto 20.15
50 Jan Kuyckx (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 20.36
...