TdG Stage 1 Ends with Russian Rocket

April 22, 2008 on 7:56 pm | In Road Racing |

For better or for worse, a quiet, boring day in the team cars for the mechanics is the best day you can ask for. No troubles with the new groupsets, no slipping handlebars over the 6 sets of choppy railroad tracks, and no flats.

Sometimes you may take a look at a rider roster and wonder ‘who the heck is this guy and what is he doing here?’ I was chatting with Rhys Pollack at dinner the first night and tried to figure out what kind of rider he was. “Are you a climber?” His answer, a very straight-forward Australian, “Nah.” “Are you a sprinter then?” “Nah, I can kinda go fast, but I can’t sprint. And I can’t climb real well neither.” Me again: “Are you a rouleur then?” “Nah, I just do whatever the team needs me to do.” Simple enough I guess.

His role on the team was illustrated well enough on Stage One to Savannah. After a fairly uneventful flat stage it’s 4Ks to go and Leon links up with our Russian sprinter Sergey and hauls him up towards the front. As the pace picks up to just under 40 mph, Rhys comes up alongside and takes over for Leon. With the peloton moving at 39mph, Rhys drops Sergey off in third position just behind the High Road leadout! Although Dominquez’s Toyota United train swallowed up his line, Sergey (blue rider in photo below at an angle) still managed to come around and finish just off the podium in fifth place!