Daniele Contrini's Stage 1 win reminded me of a Points or Scratch race in track cycling where there's a prime (pronounced "preem," a prize within a race) involved on certain laps. Usually some of the lesser (less experienced or lacking in form) riders will go hard to collect the primes because they know they can't win the race. In Contrini's case, his team, Tinkoff Credit Systems, is extremely short handed at the moment, not only in this race but overall as their management has had to scramble for riders (they recently signed Jorg Jaksche). If you know you don't have the team to challenge for the overall, what better time to go for a win but on the first stage?
Next, Day 2 saw Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) dupe the sprinters and come up with a big win. In essence, Stevic (like Popovych last year) stole the show from an anticipated mass sprint.
Then yesterday, Stage 3 saw some of the big favorites go almost 30 minutes down in the overall, with Gianni Meersman (Discovery Channel) claiming the title of strongest breakaway rider.
Foregone Conclusion
After three stages and with the upcoming climb up Brasstown Bald, the contender list for the overall in the Tour of Georgia has seemingly been pared down to two individuals, and to two ProTour teams: David Canada Gracia (Saunier Duval - Prodir) and Janez Brajkovic (Discovery Channel).
It'll be strangely interesting to see the climbing support both Canada and Brajkovic get from their all-star cast of domestiques:Saunier Duval - Prodir
Gilberto Simoni
David Millar
Ruebens Bertogliati
Discovery Channel
Levi Leipheimer
Tom Danielson
George Hincapie (see inset; already handling the bidon chores)
(Photo: Photo Sport International)
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