A tender hand didn’t slow CSC’s J.J. Haedo in the sprint finale of the second stage of the Tour de Georgia. Haedo took a convincing win in Augusta ahead of High Road’s Greg Henderson, stage 1 winner Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United) and Tyler Farrar (Slipstream-Chipotle).

Just a week out of a cast, Haedo is riding Georgia with his left hand heavily taped.

Tuesday’s flat to rolling stage from Statesboro concluded after two, 5-mile laps of Augusta that ventured across the Savannah River into South Carolina.

A few riders went down coming into the final corner, but the crash occurred about 15 riders back and didn’t disrupt the contenders. Toyota’s Henk Vogels and Dominique Rollin led out the sprint from almost 1km to go. Rollin took Dominguez out of the last corner, and Dominguez jumped with 200m to go. It was just a little too soon. After waiting on the wheel for a few pedal strokes, Haedo launched past Dominguez so fast that the pair joked afterwards about Dominguez’s helmet getting blown off.

By finishing third, Dominguez keeps the leader’s jersey for another day.

From the gun

The neutral parade lap was slower than usual. A tall GE-Trek-Marco Polo camper van was misdirected through the starting chute in downtown Statesboro and couldn't clear the low-hanging start banner. It was forced to idle there as the peloton came back through and squeezed past. Once through, the peloton got down to business almost immediately. In fact, after the neutral rollout, Slipstream’s Dave Zabriskie rolled off the front at 0km.

That move may have been for laughs, but within a few minutes attacks and counters were shooting off the front, with the peloton stringing out and snaking across the road, refusing to let anything go.

At the first of two intermediate sprints, Farrar took maximum points ahead of Jelly Belly’s Nic Sanderson.

Later, Toyota’s Justin England wrangled himself loose from the field and was eventually joined by Jelly Belly’s Bryce Mead and GE-Trek’s Rhys Pollock. The trio built up a maximum lead of seven minutes and the break absorbed the day’s second set of sprint points and time bonuses.

“It was full gas from the get-go,” Mead said. “It was pretty chaotic out there for the first few hours, and then it was just pain for the next few hours for me. But we scooped up some points [and time bonuses] so Nic didn’t have to follow Farrar, so that was good, tactics-wise.”

Sanderson ended up with the best young rider’s jersey at day’s end, just ahead of Farrar.

With three teams off the front — including the team of the yellow jersey — High Road, Astana, Gerolsteiner and Slipstream assumed chasing duties for the bulk of the day. CSC did not work as Haedo didn’t think he could sprint.

Dominguez said Toyota riders were joking with England at the beginning of the day, telling him “If you win today for any reason, we’re going to get you drunk.”

Once England was off the front, some riders in the peloton asked Dominguez why he would allow a teammate to attack instead of staying back with him to protect the jersey.

“I was like, ‘Dude, I’m not going to win the GC anyway. This way [other teams have to work] and it keeps my guys fresh for the end,’” Dominguez said.

The trio was finally caught just before the finishing circuits of Augusta. Teddy King (Bissell) and Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) took a short flyer on the first of two finishing laps, and then CSC’s Michael Blaudzun had a quick dig. But it was all back together at the end for the sprinters’ romp.

Haedo said CSC may help patrol the front on Wednesday to repay the teams that brought it all back together for a group finish.

“CSC is not the kind of team that plays games and tries to get other teams to work,” Haedo said. “If we think we have a chance, we work. Today I didn’t even tell the guys that I was going to sprint, since I didn’t know how my hand would feel.”

As for Dominguez, he said he would try to keep the jersey as long as possible.

“I will do my best,” he said, “but it’s getting heavy.”

Tour de Georgia: stage 2
1. Juan José Haedo (Arg), CSC
2. Gregory Henderson (NZ), High Road
3. Ivan Dominguez (Cub), Toyota-United