April 20/05 11:43 am - Tour de Georgia: Stage 2 Report and Photos

Posted by Editoress on 04/20/05
 

Dodge Tour de Georgia

Photos

Amy Smolens has sent through her report and interviews for stage 2 of the Tour de Georgia.

Today was not a very successful day for Canadians here at the Dodge Tour de Georgia. Although Gord Fraser of Team Health Net - Maxxis told me this morning he was feeling better than he had in Stage 1, he wasn't a factor in the finish. The good news for him is that his teammate, New Zealand's Greg Henderson, took the lead in the Maxxis Sprint Competition.

Stage 3 is an 18.6 mile time trial in and around the town of Rome, and will most certainly be one where the GC begins to take shape. The salient feature is Mt. Alto, whose 1418' peak comes 12.5 miles into the stage. Last year Lance Armstrong won on this same course and took the Yellow Leader's Jersey, never to relinquish it. It's sure to be a pivotal stage this year as well, so I spoke to a few of the Canadian riders about their thoughts on the Time Trial. I asked 3-time Olympian Eric Wohlberg of Team Symmetrics what he has told some of his teammates about this course (of the riders on Team Symmetrics, only Jacob Erker was here last year) and about his goals:

"I think I've given them the heads up that it's going to be a very difficult course with the hill in the middle of it ... Yeah, I had a top-10 ride there last year. Every year the field's a bit different and you never know what kind of weather conditions we're gonna get. I think it's gonna be good that it's not a double stage (last year it was preceded by the road stage into Rome) for the TT anyway so you can pre-ride the race in the morning and then have a bit of recovery hopefully."


Dominique Perras of Kodak Easyshare Gallery/Sierra Nevada has fairly high expectations that a good finish in Stage 3 would set the stage for overall success:

"On a personal note for me last year I was like 17th in the time trial. If I can place top-20 again this year I think my chance for top-10 overall will be really good. Obviously with the quality of the field here it's gonna be a difficult task but it's still possible." (actually Dominique was 18th - ed)