First Endurance rider Kanstantin Sivtsov (Team High Road) surprised the field today with an amazing ride up the famous Brasstown Bald.  Sivtsov soloed to victory on the Tour of Georgia’s queen stage and took over the yellow jersey (by less than a second) going into the final stage.

Sivtsov quietly made his way into contention, hanging on to Slipstream’s Trent Lowe and Astana’s Levi Leipheimer in the final kilometers of the climb- where Leipheimer made his move. With one kilometre to go Sivtsov attacked Lowe and Leipheimer and opened up a significant gap, which he held to the line.

“This is a very important race for my team,” explained the 25 year old Belorussian. “I was waiting for this stage. George [Hincapie] told me that it was very, very steep at the top and that I should wait to make one good attack. With three kilometres to go I felt good but I waited.”

“Of course there was a possibility that I could go for the overall but I was concentrating only on the stage. My team helped with,  a lot. It is a beautiful team. The riders, the management, the staff.  A beautiful team.”

“This is also a present for my Director Allan [Peiper]. It is his birthday today.”