High Road successfully defended Kanstantin Sivtsov’s yellow jersey throughout Stage 7 of the Tour de Georgia on Sunday in Atlanta, riding tempo at the front of the peloton, keeping the yellow jersey out of trouble and granting safe passage to the podium.

As a bonus, the American cycling team added the stage win atop Sivtsov’s overall win, with Greg Henderson beating CSC’s J.J. Haedo to the line in the conclusion of the sixth edition of the race.

“It’s been a good race for us,” Hincapie said outside the High Road motor home after the race. “We’re happy. We worked hard … Today our main priority was to keep the lead. To get the stage win as a huge bonus.”

The stage win was the third for High Road in the seven-stage race, with two by Henderson and the third by Sivtsov in Stage 6 on the climb to Brasstown Bald.

“The team did an amazing job,” said Henderson, who won the sprinter’s green jersey at the TdG for the second time. “Today Team High Road controlled the race with four guys. That’s a sign of how strong we are.”

Sivtsov effusively praised his team’s effort. The 25-year-old from Belarus has only spoken English for three months, but he knows enough to speak almost eloquently about the team around him.

 ”As a rider,they help me very very much,” he said. “I am only 1 rider. The win is High Road.”

As TdG runner up Trent Lowe of Slipstream-Chipotle said after Stage 6, Sivtsov wasn’t “on the radar” as an overall contender. Although Sivtsov was the under-23 world champion in 2004, he was a relative unknown. Perhaps only the High Road camp saw him as a threat to win the Tour de Georgia before the race began.

“We brought Thomas Lovkvist mand Konstantin, both young guys, and you hope with George’s leadership and a little bit of luck, we could do something significant, and that’s how it played out,” High Road owner Bob Stapleton said. “You plan for it to happen like that, but it doesn’t always work out. It’s a luxury when it does.”

That fits in with Stapleton’s mandate for the team: To race clean and to compete. He calls it “authentic athletic competition.”

“And if you win … wow!” he said.

High Road certainly had the wow-factor going in Georgia.

“I’m super happy with what’s going on,” Stapleton said.

Hincapie, the defending Tour of Missouri champ, is the glue that holds the team together. He has “street cred” as a two-time U.S. road race champion and of course his work in helping Lance Armstrong to seven Tour de France titles and Alberto Contador to the TdF title last year.

Hincapie also may have held the key to Sivtsov’s decisive victory in Stage 6 on the killer climb to Brasstown Bald.

“George rode with him until there were 5K to go and told him when to attack,” Stapleton said, adding that Sivtsov “wanted to go with 3K to go, but George told him to wait until the last K and make one big attack. He used George’s expertise.”

Sivtsov made his Tour-winning attack inside the final K, waiting until 500 meters to attack and leave behind Astana’s Levi Leipheimer and Slipstream-Chipotle’s Trent Lowe, then in the yellow jersey. Sivtsov had entered the stage 6 seconds behind Lowe, but won the stage by 10 seconds over low to build a 4-second lead — all thanks to Hincapie’s leadership.

“We have so many young guys, we needed that leadership,” said Stapleton, who signed Hincapie after last season. “He’s exceeded all expectations. Our riders like him and they really listen to what he says.”

Credit TdF street cred.

“George with Armstrong … win seven Tours,” Sivtsov said. “He’s very important for our team. He very much helped me in Stage 6, he help me for winning the race. Today for the last 10 kilometers he is in the first position. He is huge for our team.”

And the victory in the Tour de Georgia is certainly huge for Sivtsov.

“First time race in America, first time a win … is good,” he said.

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