Macon, GA - It was a strange day all around to open the 2007 Tour de Georgia. First, an early break actually stayed away until the finish. Doug Ollerenshaw of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis came out of that break to earn a second place, 0:21 behind Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff), a stage winner in the 2006 Tour de Suisse.

Ollerenshaw was part of a five-man break that formed after an attack by Vicktor Rapinski (Navigators) of an earlier break. With 95 km to go in the 153 km run from Peachtree City to Macon, Ollerenshaw, Contrini, Ben Day (Navigators) and Mike Sayers (BMC) jumped out of the swift-moving peloton and worked their way toward Rapinski, who finally sat up after about 20 km out on his own, and allowed the catch, which added a bit more firepower up front.

"Contrini was incredible getting to Rapinski," Ollerenshaw said. "He was doing these huge pulls. The first 10 minutes we were chasing Rapinski, he almost rode me and Sayers off his wheel. I think he did 80 percent of the work to close the gap, and deserves 100 percent of the credit for catching him. I don't think Mike and I could've closed it on our own."

The break worked smoothly and the gap began to balloon, finally peaking at eight minutes with just under 70 km to go. "I was a bit surprised that the break succeeded," Ollerenshaw said. "But when the gap hit 6:45, with the stiff tailwind today, I thought we had a chance."

Discovery and Saunier Duval finally went to the front to begin the task of bringing things back together, at least close enough until the sprinters' teams could take over to finish the job.

However, it didn't work out to plan. With the gap coming down to around three minutes, a wreck in the peloton may have disrupted the chase and given the break new life, despite a hard chase by Toyota United and Slipstream. As the break hit the first of three 4.1 km circuits in Macon, the five became four, with Rapinski dropped on the first trip up the steep, cobbled climb.

"I thought Contrini might not have much left for the circuits, but he never backed off," Ollerenshaw said. In fact, the Italian attacked the first time up the tough climb on the circuit, immediately shedding Rapinski. "He looked bad toward the end. He was covered in salt from his solo effort," Ollerenshaw said of the Belarusian.

"At this point, I was more worried about Ben," he continued. "He had a free ride when we were chasing Rapinski, and when Contrini attacked the first time up, Ben had no trouble following. When Contrini attacked the second time up, I let him get a small gap and tried to get Ben to come up and chase. Ben came through, then I hit him about two-thirds of the way up the climb and got a gap. But I couldn't quite get up to Contrini.

"Ben caught me going over the top and we worked together to bring back Contrini but we weren't making much progress. I was hoping Contrini would fade the last time up the climb and I could bridge but he never faded."

The experienced Italian drove hard the final time up the climb and held his lead over the chasing duo. When Ollerenshaw and Day reached the base of the climb for the last time, Day was the one to put in the attack. Ollerenshaw grabbed his wheel, but Day kept driving. The Health Net Presented by Maxxis rider sat on Day's wheel for another 30 seconds, then hit him at the beginning of the cobbles, about half-way up the climb.

Coming over the top, Ollerenshaw had a solid gap. "(Health Net Presented by Maxxis directeur sportif) Jeff (Corbett) had to yell at me to quit looking over my should for Ben because I thought he was going to catch me."

Instead, Ollerenshaw finished with a comfortable seven-second gap at the line, 0:21 back of Contrini, with Ryder Hesjedal of Health Net Presented by Maxxis leading in the peloton 1:07 after Contrini crossed the line. After time bonuses, Ollerenshaw was in second place overall, 0:29 back of Contrini.

"I'd like to have a crack at getting the jersey again Tuesday, but I don't expect Tinkoff to let me get to far in a break," Ollerenshaw said.

Health Net Presented by Maxxis puts three in top six on stage.

The second strange occurrence on the stage came at the finish, with Hesjedal leading the bunch in for fourth. While the lanky Canadian is known as a strong climber and good time trialist, his name and "sprinter" normally don't appear together in the same sentence. However, he managed to finish ahead of some very strong closers, including Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United; 5th) and his own teammate Karl Menzies (6th). Super-sprinter J.J. Haedo (CSC) only managed ninth for the stage.

In reality, Hesjedal didn't exactly out-sprint Dominguez. Instead, he attacked the peloton in the second-to-last corner of the technical finishing circuit to open a gap he held to the line, finishing five bike lengths ahead. He almost didn't have the opportunity at the finish, as he nearly got caught up in the wreck that affected the peloton approaching the finishing circuits in Macon. "I had to bunny-hop a curb and ride through the grass to avoid it," said the former multiple mountain bike world cup medalist. "Having good bike-handling skills doesn't hurt, I guess." After time bonuses, however, Hesjedal was sitting 6th overall, 1:22 behind Contrini.

The Tour de Georgia continues Tuesday with a 217 km stage from Thomaston to Rome.

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