The Tour de Georgia ended last weekend with a circuit race around Atlanta, but the action will be televised this Saturday and Sunday on the Versus sports network.
Formerly OLN (and still named that in Canada), the Versus cable network will broadcast Stages 1-4 on Saturday from 5-7 p.m. (ET) and Stages 5-7 on Sunday from 5-6 p.m. (ET). (Following the Tour de Georgia, Versus televises La Fleche Wallonne from 6-7 p.m. on Sunday.)
That means the interesting finish in Rome and the long breakaway will be shown on Saturday's telecast, and Brasstown Bald and the Atlanta finish are on Sunday.
On the West Coast, the broadcast is scheduled while many cyclists are out on the road enjoying their own bike rides, so I'd expect viewership to be low out here.
Visitors to the Brasstown Bald stage of the Tour de Georgia on Friday might have witnessed rescuers reviving a man who crashed his bike on the way down the mountain.
The man, Thomas Kinnebrew of Helena, Arkansas, crashed into a rock embankment after he lost control on his bike after the race. Rescuers at the scene kept him alive with .... more»
Six cyclists from the Pacific Northwest competed at the 2007 Tour de Georgia. Here's how they did in the final standings:
Omer Kem of Salem, Oregon (Priority Health); 106th overall more»
The Tour de Georgia has posted the highlights of several stages of this year's bike race at YouTube. Here's a 10-second clip of fans chasing Levi Leipheimer up Brasstown Bald.
As of Sunday night, the finishes for Stage 5 (Brasstown Bald), Stage 6 and Stage 7 were also posted. These clips run about 6 to 10 minutes each. ... more»
Janez Brajkovic, left, held off the challengers to win the 2007 Tour de Georgia on Sunday, becoming the first non-US cyclist to win the 5-year-old bike race.
Meanwhile, Argentinian sprinter J J Haedo repeated last year's feat by winning the last stage of the Tour, which ended in Atlanta with a 77-mile criterium race.
The overall win by the 23-year-old Discovery Channel cyclist from Slovenia is just one indicator of the growing international flavor of this stage tour, which has been dominated by Americans in previous years. Other winners were Chris Horner (2003), Lance Armstrong (2004), Tom Danielson (2005), and Floyd Landis (2006). ... more»
Fast Freddie Rodriguez jumped out of a sprinting mass of cyclists at Stone Mountain on Saturday to win Stage 6 of the Tour de Georgia, just ahead of JJ Haedo and George Hincapie.
This is the first stage win for the popular US cyclist on Predictor-Lotto since taking Stage 4 of the 2006 Tour de Georgia. He suffered a very bad fall during last year's Tour de France which kept him out of contention for awhile.
In the overall battle for the yellow jersey, Discovery Channel's Janez Brajkovic of Slovenia has maintained his 12 second lead over US cyclist Christian Vandevelde of Team CSC. ... more»
Discovery Channel cyclist Levi Leipheimer beat the peloton to the top of Brasstown Bald (on right side of course profile) on Friday, winning his second mountain-top Tour de Georgia stage in as many days.
Teammate Janez Brajkovic of Slovenia retained the leader's yellow jersey after he and closest challenger Christian Vandevelde (Team CSC) of the US matched each other up the climb up the highest point in Georgia. Vandevelde trails Brajkovic by 12 seconds in the overall standings.
Crowds swarmed over the summit of Brasstown Bald, as Tom Danielson (Discovery) and Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home) finished behind Leipheimer. Last year's Tour de Georiga and Tour de France winner Floyd Landis was on hand at the summit to meet and greet. ... more»
The Discovery Channel pro cycling team took the stage and overall lead at the Tour de Georgia on Thursday, perhaps setting up a battle later on with Team CSC.
Levi Leipheimer won the 18.9-mile Stage 4 individual time trial from Chickamauga to Lookout Mountain in 44:51.
Although he finished more than 2 minutes later, teammate Janez Brajkovic's 47:28 was good enough to take the yellow jersey from the shoulders of David Canada from Saunier Duval-Prodir.. ... more»
The Tour de Georgia keeps on delivering surprises. A youth movement attack of 13 cyclists tore apart the peloton with a nearly 30-minute plus breakaway that essentially ended the General Classification aspirations for all the favorites.
Discovery Channel's Gianni Meersman, left, of Belgium -- the youngest cyclist in the race -- won the 118-mile Stage 3 between Rome and Chattanooga. Second-place finisher David Canada Gracia (Spain) of Saunier Duval took over the overall race lead.
While it seems that the favorites -- Tyler Hamilton, Levi Leipheimer, Tom Danielson, Dave Zabriskie, Fred Rodriguez, and the list goes on -- have been unable to make an impact on the race in the first two stages, their absence in Stage 3 is confounding. ... more»
Tour de Georgia's Tour Tracker is streaming live video as I write this, but no audio yet for Stage 3. Looks like that breakaway of about a dozen is working a double paceline to put some minutes between itself and the peloton.
It's been a rough start for Tour Tracker the first couple of days, as I know they never got the video and audio up Tuesday, and maybe not Monday either. I suppose a few bugs are inevitable whenever you're dealing with melding new technologies. (Crap just lost the video on a Category 4 climb.) .... more»
One of the most refreshing things about this year's Tour de Georgia is how the Continental pro cycling teams are getting all the attention and appear to be driving this race.
I know, we've only seen two stages, but the big ProTour cycling teams like Discovery Channel, Team CSC, Predictor-Lotto, QuickStep and Prodir-Saunier have been pretty quiet so far.
All the action has come from cyclists on the smaller budget teams that don't usually make it over to Europe to compete in the high-prestige bicycle races. This is great recognition for those dedicated guys who train day-after-day for the chance to one day make the big time. ... more»
The peloton must have learned its lesson from the day before at the Tour de Georgia, and closed the gap to a three-man breakaway before arriving in Rome for the Stage 2 finish.
The cyclists from Jittery Joes, Navigators Insurance and Priority Health gained as much as 9 minutes on the main group during the 135-mile stage between Thomaston and Rome before they were reeled in.
The stage ended with three circuits around Rome, and Toyota-United's Ivan Stevic attacked on the last lap with enough staying power to propel him to victory. Juan Jose Haedo (Team CSC) and Fred Rodriguez (Predictor-Lotto) finished in second and third, respectively. ... more»
There are a total of six pro cyclists at the 2007 Tour de Georgia this year with roots in the Pacific Northwest.
I wrote about Portland's Doug Ollerenshaw and North Bend's Tom Peterson on Monday. When a reader emailed that there was at least one more, I thought I'd better check the rosters as closely as I could and came up with four more cyclists:
Washington residents Ian McKissick of Mulkiteo and Jonathan Patrick McCarty of North Bend, Omer Kem of Salem, Oregon, and Phil Zajicek, whose hometown is Eugene, Oregon. ... more»
Two cyclists from the Pacific Northwest -- Doug Ollerenshaw, left, of Portland and Tom Peterson, right, of North Bend, Washington -- are among the 115-some racers at this week's Tour de Georgia.
Ollerenshaw, a member of the Health Net pro cycling team, gained the distinction of jumping on the right breakaway and finishing in 2nd place, 29 seconds behind the winner, Daniele Contrini.
Peterson, a member of the much talked about Team Slipstream, is currently ranked in 3rd place in the competition for Best Young Rider at the Tour de Georgia. He won that distinction at the 2006 Tour of California. ... more»
You can't blame some of these cyclists from the continental teams for attacking early and getting a little glory in Stage 1 of the Tour de Georgia before the big boys from Discovery Channel, Team CSC, Prodir-Saunier, QuickStep and Predictor-Lotto took over.
But a funny thing happened on the way to Macon; riders from Navigators, Health Net, Tinkoff and BMC put together a little five-man breakaway that gained an 8-minute gap on the peloton at one point and propelled three of its members to win, place and show.
Italian cyclist Daniele Contrini from the new Tinkoff Credit Systems team won the stage, followed by Portland resident Doug Ollerenshaw for Health Net and Australian Ben Day for Navigators Insurance. ... more»
A new Toyota-United cycling team blog covers some behind the scenes action for the continental pro cycling team and news and pictures from some of its races.
Recent posts include pictures from the Tour de Georgia training ride, and a quip from teammember Ivan Dominguez at this weekend's press conference. ... more»
The Tour de Georgia, for the first time ever, will offer live video streaming of the bike race that begins Monday and runs through April 22.
That's good news for anyone who wants to see more of the race than the minute-by-minute updates from VeloNews and CyclingNews or wait a week or more to see the action broadcast on Versus.
The Georgia bike race will use the same Tour Tracker interface that brought rave reviews during this year's Amgen Tour of California. Viewers can get live streaming video, live streaming audio, live GPS tracking of the peloton and race leaders on a map, text updates from CyclingNews, and heart rate and speed/cadence measurements downloaded from a few chosen riders. ... more»
Will another American win the 2007 Tour de Georgia bicycle race, set to start on Monday?
The US cyclist with perhaps the most to prove in the peloton is TylerHamilton, competing for the first time on US soil since undergoing a two-year ban for blood doping. The 36-year-old cyclist, busted during the Vuelta a Espana bike race in 2004, is leading the newly created Italy-based Tinkoff team.
Then there's Tom Danielson, who is leading the Discovery Channel team and looking to repeat his winning Tour de Georgia performance of 2005. Joining him is teammate LeviLeipheimer, who would probably like to prove that winning the Amgen Tour of California in February was no fluke. Discovery is also bringing George Hincapie, who broke his wrist in that California tour. ... more»
Still scratching around for money, Tour de Georgia organizers announced Wednesday that AT&T has come forward with $500,000.
Tour de Georgia backers said a couple of weeks ago that "the race must go on" in spite of a $1 million shortfall and lack of a title sponsor. The Georgia state legislature then got into the action; first House approved $1 million infusion in the 2007 state budget, then the state Senate removed it... more»
Fast Freddie Rodriguez jumped out of a sprinting mass of cyclists at Stone Mountain on Saturday to win Stage 6 of the Tour de Georgia, just ahead of JJ Haedo and George Hincapie.
Discovery Channel cyclist Levi Leipheimer beat the peloton to the top of Brasstown Bald (on right side of course profile) on Friday, winning his second mountain-top Tour de Georgia stage in as many days.
The Tour de Georgia keeps on delivering surprises. A youth movement attack of 13 cyclists tore apart the peloton with a nearly 30-minute plus breakaway that essentially ended the General Classification aspirations for all the favorites.
Tour de Georgia's 
Two cyclists from the Pacific Northwest -- Doug Ollerenshaw, left, of Portland and Tom Peterson, right, of North Bend, Washington -- are among the 115-some racers at this week's Tour de Georgia.
