There was quite a bit of confusion at the end of Stage 2 yesterday into Rome. Initially, the announcers on the podium called out the name of Rene Hasselbacker (Team Gerolsteiner, race number 51) as the winner of the stage. This was quickly corrected to a second presumed winner, Michael Rich (Team Gerolsteiner, race number 52). I heard this correction announced before I left the finish area.
By the time I walked the five or six blocks back to the Media Center, the referees corrected the announcers by saying that Peter Wrolich (Team Gerolsteiner, race number 56) had won. All of these corrections were apparently due to misread race numbers.
The declaration of the General Classification leader after Stage 2 was not made for over three hours after the stage finished. Tentatively, Tour de Georgia media relations said that Peter Wrolich would wear the yellow jersey. I believe he was presented with the yellow jersey at the end of the stage. At about 9:00pm, one of the media relations people came into the press room to say that there had been a “complication” in declaring the GC leader and that we should hold any story filings that we possibly could until the leader could be officially declared.
The media people came back a little while later to tell us that Robby Hunter would wear the yellow jersey and start the Stage 3 time trial last today. (Lance Armstrong will be starting fifth-from-last, at approximately 1:00pm Eastern Daylight Time.)
I had posted preliminary results right after the race. I corrected the GC leader to Robby Hunter after I left the Media Center, using my Treo 650. I hope there will be a bit less confusion today.