Levi Leipheimer won his second cycling championship of the year on Friday by winning Spain's five-day Vuelta a Castilla y Leon bicycle race.
The win follows on the heels of his third straight Tour of California championship in February.
The Montana-born member of Team Astana was joined on the podium by teammate and defending champion Alberto Contador in 2nd place and Garmin-Slipstream's David Zabriskie in 3rd place (Zabriskie placed 2nd to Leipheimer in the Tour of California.)
Interesting how this race turned out. It had been ballyhooed as a showdown for team leadership between Contador and Lance Armstrong. The Texan broke his collarbone in a pileup on Monday, however, and he's been following it from his home in Austin after Wednesday's surgery.
Meanwhile, Leipheimer quietly set out to win the race for himself by finishing first in Tuesday's individual time trial and holding onto the leader's jersey the rest of the race.
Here's a quote from Leipheimer posted at the Astana team website:
“I am very grateful to Alberto and my other teammates. On the first day of the race Alberto told me that this race suited me better than him and that he would help me. He was right. The long time trial and the not-so-steep mountaintop finishes favored me. The way Alberto pulled on the climb to Laguna de los Peces was impressive. The other teammates had to work too all day long. Everybody raced against Team Astana.”
Race reports and results at VeloNews and CyclingNews.
Recent Comments