SAVANNAH, Ga. – In the words of Toyota-United team director Len Pettyjohn, T-U rider Justin England “buried himself” for the good of the team Tuesday in Stage 2 of the Tour de Georgia.

In the world of professional cycling, that means England pretty much pedaled himself into exhaustion for the purpose of helping teammate Ivan Dominguez remain in the yellow jersey.

England’s sacrifice paid off, with Dominguez holding onto the leader’s yellow jersey by three seconds over High Road’s Greg Henderson after two stages of the TdG.

“There are a lot of ways to defend the yellow jersey,” Pettyjohn said outside the team bus after the stage, which was won by J.J. Haedo of CSC. “You can put 6-7-8 guys riding tempo at the front (of the peloton) or you can depend on one guy in the break.”

On Tuesday, that was England, who launched an attack a little more than halfway through the 116.9 mile stage from Statesboro to Augusta. In keeping with Augusta as the home of a certain prestigious golf tournament, it was, in Pettyjohn’s words, “a masterful job.”

By launching the breakaway, on which he eventually was joined by Bryce Mead of Jelly Belly and Rhys Pollock from GE Marco Polo-Trek, England kept his teammates fresh in the hopes of launching Dominguez for back-to-back stage wins.

With a rider in the break, as Ivan Stevic was in Stage 1, Toyota-United riders didn’t have to do any work at the front of the peloton in reeling in the breakaway. The strategy raised some eyebrows in the peloton.

“A lot of guys said, ‘What kind of tactics are you guys doing?’” Dominguez said. “I said, ‘We don’t have to chase; we have a guy in the move. It keeps my guys fresh for the end.”

The end - a stage win - didn’t quite play out as planned, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. As in Monday’s opening stage, Henk Vogels and Dominique Rollin sprung Dominguez for the final sprint but Dominguez went clear just a bit early and CSC’s Haedo overtook him en route to the stage win. Henderson of High Road was second and Dominguez third.

Still, the four-second time bonus for finishing third was enough to keep Dominguez in yellow for the second day, unlike at the Tour of Missouri last year when Dominguez won the opening stage but the team gave it up the next day - for good, it turned out, to George Hincapie — when it neither got anyone in the breakaway nor worked very long to bring the breakaway back.

“(England) buried himself and set it up for the rest of the team,” Pettyjohn said. “This is one way to defend the jersey, and he should have been recognized as the hero of the day. He saved the jersey today. He was out there for half the breakaway by himself.”

With a half-dozen jerseys awarded after each stage, the informal “hero” jersey goes to the day’s most-aggressive rider, a subjective honor picked by the race organizers with input from the media and an online audience. On Tuesday, that selection was Pollock of the Tour’s favorite underdog team, the Chinese GE Marco Polo-Trek squad.

The selection of Pollock over England raised more eyebrows than England making the move to get in the break.

“I don’t know who the guys are who do that stuff, but everybody’s talking about,” Dominguez said, adding that England “was the first guy in the break and he was gone for so long by himself, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”

England paid a price for the effort. His breakaway was eclipsed by the peloton just before the two finishing ciruits, and within those 10 miles, he ended up finishing more than 9 minutes behind the group. Though Pollack’s effort in bridging the gap and joining England on the breakaway was commendable, England’s solo effort cannot be discounted.

“We’re still in yellow,” Pettyjohn said.

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