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Landis defends Georgia lead as Danielson takes Brasstown Bald
The amazing spring run of Floyd Landis continued on Saturday, as the American stared down a stiff challenge from Tom Danielson and the Discovery Channel team during the brutal Stage 5 climb up Brasstown Bald at the 2006 Ford Tour de Georgia.
While Danielson managed to pull off the stage win, he could not shake the tenacious Landis from his wheel, and they were both credited with the same finishing time — 4:04:56 — on the 94.5-mile stage. That meant Landis held onto his four-second lead in the overall standings, a margin that will almost surely hold up with only Sunday’s mostly flat run from Cummings to Alpharetta left in this six-day, 601-mile race.
Add that to wins at the Tour of California and Paris-Nice earlier in the spring, and Landis is enjoying the best run of his career.
"I felt better this year," said Landis when asked what had been the difference between this climb up Brasstown and a year ago when he lost 1:09 to Danielson, which cost Landis the overall. "I think Tom was equally as strong and his team was strong. My team did a good job. I have no complaints about that. I just have more confidence after the spring I’ve had so far."
Landis needed all that confidence on Saturday, as he had to endure a barrage of attacks from Discovery, which managed to isolate him during the ascent of Brasstown. After hitting the early portions of this three-mile, 2000-plus foot ascent with several teammates, Landis was soon alone, staring at three Discovery riders in front of him. Along with Danielson were Jason McCartney and Yaroslav Popovych.
"We had a strong team and were ready," said Danielson. "I think that we underestimated how strong Floyd was. We had such a great team. At one point there was three of us and one of him, and we kept the pace going. Last year we attacked at the bottom and this year I put all my cards at the very end. Floyd was very, very strong."
Indeed, after McCartney dropped off the pace, Popovych and Danielson did all they could to crack Landis. But the Phonak rider was not to be denied two years in a row, and even rolled up beside Danielson on several occasions just to make sure he knew he was still there.
"Popovych and Danielson were strong and they did a good job of leading into the climb at a pretty high pace," said Landis. "I knew Tom is very good at hard efforts like that. It’s not exactly my strong point. I had to let Popovych go at a couple points. That would have been fine with me if he won. But Tom was strong enough to sprint at the end, so he earned that one."
The end game had started with less than 4km to go with only Popovych, Danielson and Landis left at the front. The threesome rode together until the 3km to go mark, before Danielson took his first stab at victory. Despite several hard accelerations, the climbing specialist couldn’t shake Landis and the three riders soon regrouped. Behind them a shattered field struggled up the steep climb that was lined on either side with thousands of rowdy fans.
Moments later Popovych dropped off the pace, leaving only the top two riders on GC to battle for the overall title. There the cat-and-mouse games began, but Danielson was quickly running out of options.
"At the end I’m waiting for Popovych and [Landis is] not pedaling. Because why should he pedal? He’s in the leader’s jersey," lamented Danielson. "So he stopped, then I stopped. There was a head wind so it doesn’t make sense for me to pull all the way to the top and hope he’ll fall off the wheel because he’s too strong."
That tactical battle allowed Popovych to catch back on, and the Stage 2 winner actually shot into the lead and looked like he might grab another one. But Danielson and Discovery knew that would mean giving away any chance at the overall, as Popovych was too far back in the GC, sixth at 1:37, to overtake Landis.
"Tom knows he’s better at just accelerating and accelerating, while I’m better at a constant speed," said Landis. "I’m assuming that [Discovery director] Johan [Bruyneel] telling him on the radio that’s what he should do, so I didn’t have a choice but to stay with him. I thought he would let his teammate win the stage, but he sprinted at the end. He got the stage win, but I did what I had to do."
Earlier in the day, the story was once again Discovery’s McCartney. The former Tour de Georgia stage winner got into the day’s first break, a six-rider move that included then KOM leader Lucas Euser (TIAA-CREF) and his teammate Will Frischkorn.
After helping them build a margin that topped out at 4:47, McCartney went on the attack, intent on wresting the KOM jersey from Euser. The young rider did his best to stay with McCartney up the day’s first climb, the category 1 Hogpen Gap. But McCartney dropped him on the way up, bringing himself within one point in the KOM standing.
"I don’t know if I have the words for that," said Danielson when asked to comment on the efforts of his teammate. "Jason is incredible. Yesterday he was the breakaway. Today he did the same thing and at the finish he was still pulling. The guy has no idea how strong he is.
"People don’t know this but he’s been sick this week too. On Stage 2 he had to stop on the side of the road and was out of the race. He had to go to the bathroom. The whole caravan had gone by and he chased back on, then did top 10 in the time trial and was in all these breakaways."
McCartney’s solo breakaway on Saturday continued up and over the second rated climb, category 2 Unicoi Gap, 80.5 miles into the 94.5-mile stage, and with Euser not taking any KOM points, the jersey was McCartney’s. The Iowan was also awarded the Most Aggressive Rider’s jersey, which will be worn by Popovych, who jumped to third on GC after taking third in the stage, 0:18 behind Danielson.
"Johan says in the meetings that you have to do this, and you just don’t want to let him down," said McCartney of his full work slate this week. "I mean this is the guy who directed Lance to seven Tour wins. I’m just trying to do my job. I know they’re really happy if you don’t let them down. I can lay it all down on the road, and if I ride easy on the final climb, it’s no problem."
McCartney would stay off the front of the race all the way to the 84-mile mark, long after his former breakaway partners had been reeled in. From there it was time for the battle between Landis and Danielson.
"This year, at this point in the season, I’m climbing better than last year," said Landis. "Tom was very strong. I don’t know if seeming confident was a little bit of an illusion because I was scared of this climb. He’s very good at it and you saw what he did last year. He made it absolutely as hard as he could. This isn’t my favorite kind of climb. It’s not constant. It’s better for hard attacks. It was just suffer and get through it."
Next up, the Tour de Georgia makes the 118.2-mile trip from Cummings to Alpharetta. Racing starts at 12:30 p.m. and there is just one rated climb, a category 3 ascent at mile marker 30.
Top 10
1. Tom Danielson (USA), Discovery, 4:05:56
2. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, same time
3. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery, 0:18
4. Augusto Cesar Augusto (Col), Navigators, 0:23
5. Janez Brajkovic (SLO), Discovery, s.t.
6. Remmert Wielinga (Nl), Quick Step-Innergetic, 0:28
7. José Enrique Gutierrez Cataluna (Sp), Phonak, 0:49
8. Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Sp), Discovery, 1:35
9. Justin England (USA), Toyota-United, 1:49
10. Marco Pinotti (I), Saunier Duval, 1:58
Overall
1. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 19:23:10
2. Thomas Danielson (USA), Discovery, 0:04
3. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery, 1:55
4. José Enrique Gutierrez Cataluna (Sp), Phonak, 2:11
5. Janez Brajkovic (SLO), Discovery, 2:15
6. David Zabriskie (USA), CSC, 2:31
7. Nathan O'Neill (Aus), Health Net Maxxis, 3:45
8. Marco Pinotti (I), Saunier Duval, 3:54
9. Christopher Baldwin (USA), Toyota-United, 4:01
10. Augusto Cesar Augusto (Col), Navigators, 4:20
To see how today's pivotal stage developed, simplyclickhere to bring up our Live Update Window.
