Juan José Haedo (Photo: Toyota United)

ATLANTA, Apr 22 (CP) - Argentinian sprinter Juan José Haedo has won the final stage in the Tour de Georgia, outsprinting Fred Rodriguez and Sergei Lagutin in the final sprint. Meanwhile, Slovenian Janez Brajkovic secured the overall victory.

The seventh and last stage of the Tour de Georgia led the remaining riders over a circuit race in Atlanta, where nine laps of almost fourteen kilometres each had to be faced.

After lots of attempts to breakaway, the decisive attack came from Cesar Grajales (Jittery Joe's), who was joined by Ben Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health) and Kirk O'bee (Health Net) not much later. Their advantage soon increased to more than a minute, but the peloton controlled the gap.

When the three had their maximum advantage of two minutes, Jacques-Maynes flatted and could not hang on with the leading group anymore. With thirty kilometres left to ride, the two up front had to fight against a chasing peloton with a gap of one minute and 30 seconds.

In the final lap, the gap had decreased to 15 seconds when some riders jumped from the peloton to the group up front, including riders as Tom Danielson, David Millar and former race leader David Cañada Gracia.

However, six kilometres from the finish line, the break was over and a bunch sprint was prepared, in which Team CSC's Haedo turned out to be the strongest, crossing the line first ahead of stage six winner Rodriguez and Uzbek Lagutin.

Stage results:

1. Juan José Haedo (Arg-CSC) 2h25'30"
2. Fred Rodriguez (USA-PRL) s.t.
3. Sergei Lagutin (Uzb-NIC) s.t.
4. Ivan Dominguez (Cub-TUT) s.t.
5. George Hincapie (USA-DSC) s.t.
6. Justin England (GBr-TUT) s.t.
7. Ruggero Marzoli (Ita-TCS) s.t.
8. Daniele Contrini (Ita-TCS) s.t.
9. Evan Elken (USA-JIT) s.t.
10. Charles Dionne (Can-COL) s.t.

Final general classification:

1. Janez Brajkovic (Slo-DSC) 25h26'33"
2. Christian Vandevelde (USA-CSC) 0'12"
3. David Canada (Esp-SDV) 3'04"
4. Rubens Bertogliati (Sui-SDV) 3'06"
5. Kevin Seeldraeyers (Bel-QSI) 4'22"
6. Scott Nydam (USA-BMC) 5'35"
7. Jeff Louder (USA-HNC) 6'00"
8. Timothy Johnson (USA-HNC) 6'59"
9. Lucas Euser (USA-TSL) 10'08"
10. Ivan Santaromita (Sui-QSI) 12'15"

Mountains classification:

1. Ryder Hesjedal (Can-HNC) 18pts
2. Anthony Colby (USA-COL) 16
3. Levi Leipheimer (USA-DSC) 12

Sprints classification:

1. Juan José Haedo (Arg-CSC) 41pts
2. Fred Rodriguez (USA-PRL) 37
3. Sergei Lagutin (Uzb-NIC) 26

Young riders classification:

1. Janez Brajkovic (Slo-DSC) 25h26'33"
2. Kevin Seeldraeyers (Bel-QSI) 4'22"
3. Lucas Euser (USA-TSL) 10'08"

Teams classification:

1. Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (USA) 76h41'52"
2. Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis (USA) 8'42"
3. Saunier Duval-Prodir (Esp) 10'42"

© Jeroen Michiels