Dahlonega, GA - On the longest stage of the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T, a hilly 133.4-mile slog that took in three rated climbs, it was the turn of Tim Johnson to help establish and drive the main break of the day.

"Everybody did a great job of covering the early moves," Johnson said. "Today it was the one I covered that happened to stay away."

Johnson was part of a four-man break that was able to finally escape the peloton at about 35 miles into the stage, after numerous attempts by other riders were squelched by a fast-moving peloton.

"I think our move just had the right mix of teams," Johnson commented, noting that there were no riders from bigger teams like Astana, Slipstream or that of race leader Greg Henderson's High Road.

The peloton gave the foursome a long leash initially, allowing a gap approaching 12 minutes to form by the first KOM up Burnt Mountain at 62 miles in.

"It was a little surprising that they gave us that much time," Johnson said. "But I guess when you have another 100 km to go, they figured they could pull back an 11 or 12-minute gap."

But on the undulating course, it maybe took a bit longer than expected. "There weren't too many places on the route that were flat and the peloton could pull back time," the team captain said.

But the teams of GC favorites Levi Leipheimer (Astana), Bobby Julich (CSC) and Trent Lowe (Slipstream), as well as that of race leader Henderson (High Road), had no interest in repeating the scenario of the 2007 Tour de Georgia, when a group of 12 riders, including Johnson, went out to a 29-minute gap on Stage 3 and basically decided the race.

Once the chase was organized, the gap came back to a more manageable eight minutes with just over 50 miles left to race. When the break hit the second KOM over Woody Gap at mile 108, the gap had dropped down to five minutes, with one more climb to come less than two miles from the finish line.

Between the two climbs, the peloton continued its efforts to erode the gap to the break. When the four tiring riders hit the base of the last climb, the gap was hovering just above one minute.

"When we started getting closer to the last climb and it looked like we were probably going to get caught, I started trying to conserve a bit of energy for one last attack," Johnson said.

At the base of the climb to the summit Crown Mountain, the break came around a turn to a steeper section of the climb, which smacked riders with grades approaching 15% near the top. One of the riders in the break skipped a gear, and when the others looked to see what happened, Johnson said, "that looked like a good time to go."

Johnson put in one last effort to stay away over the top and use his strong bike-handling skills on the technical descent to the finish. But he was caught going over the top after nearly 100 miles off the front and absorbed back into the lead bunch, which by then was down to little more than 20 riders.

One of those riders was his teammate and regular roommate on the road, Rory Sutherland. Coming into the technical final kilometer, Sutherland was well positioned near the front of the bunch. But the layout of the finishing sequence, with a sharp turn just 150 meters from the line, meant whomever got to the turn first would likely win the stage.

Richard England (Bissell) came out of the final turn first. "I was just off his wheel coming out of the turn," Sutherland said. "But there just wasn't enough time to get around him." Instead, Sutherland finished second, holding off George Hincapie (High Road), who rounded out the podium.

"It was good to have someone up in the break today," Sutherland said. "We needed it. It take a lot of stress off of everyone on the team, and it allowed me to take it a bit easier so I could have the kick at the end."

Along with helping Sutherland to a podium placing, Johnson was rewarded for his efforts in the break and his final attack on Crown Mountain with the Most Aggressive Rider jersey for the stage, which Sutherland was wearing for the stage after earning it with a late attack in Stage 3.

Notes

This is the second consecutive Tour de Georgia in which Johnson has earned a Most Aggressive Rider jersey for a stage. This is also the second consecutive year that he earned it on the road stage before the Queen stage to Brasstown Bald. Last year it was on Stage 3. He held that jersey through the Stage 4 time trial until that 5th stage.