Henderson inches closer to lead

High Road's Greg Henderson took second place in the second stage of Tour de Georgia. In a very close sprint finish, Henderson came in behind CSC's JJ Haedo. With the second place the New Zealander moved up to second place in the overall classification. Henderson goes into stage three trailing the overall leader, Ivan Dominguez (Toyota United), by only three seconds.

"It was close," said High Road's Directeur Sportif Allan Piper, "but it's not winning. The team rode really well," he added. "We only have seven riders here and they were on the front today for close to 100 kilometres, so they did a great job. We'll try again tomorrow [Wednesday - ed.]."

Henderson was a little disappointed with the finish, struggling to get the gear he needed for the final metres. "At 150m to go I thought I was going to pull it off but I couldn't get into the 11 cog," he explained. "I don't really want to blame my gears, though. At least I proved I have good speed and I've got another opportunity to go for it tomorrow [Wednesday]."

"The boys were great and rode really hard for me all day," Henderson added. "They did a lot of work to bring the break back and George [Hincapie] looked after me in the finishing circuits to set it up for the finish."

Stage three starts in the small town of Washington, Georgia, and covers 180 kilometres of undulating terrain to finish in Gainsville. It is likely to be another stage for the sprinters.