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Levi’s hat trick, Schleck’s stage as Amgen Tour ends
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To win his third consecutive Amgen Tour of California, Levi Leipheimer needed every bit of help he received from his seven Astana teammates. That was emphasized on Sunday when 10 riders broke clear on the upper reaches of Palomar Mountain, and Leipheimer was the only Astana man who could follow the attacks. “But even though he was alone on Palomar,” said Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel, “I could see Levi was comfortable.”
Leipheimer was looking good despite being isolated. The split was caused by the Saxo Bank team, whose aggressive riding all day long was rewarded when Fränk Schleck won stage 8 in Escondido in an eventual sprint against his breakaway companion, Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas.
“Yesterday in Pasadena I was so disappointed,” Schleck said about losing stage 7 after making a dashing attack on the Rose Bowl circuit. “It was such a tactical race there.”
Final Results and Stage 8, Rancho Bernardo to Escondido,155.8 km 96.8 miles)
Overall Winner: Levi Leipheimer (Astana)
Leipheimer's average speed for the AToC: 41.34 kph (25.68 mph); 1297.1 km (805.9 miles) in 31:28:21
Stage 8 Winner: Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank)
Schleck's average speed for stage 8: 40.88 kph (25.4 mph)
Rabobank Best Young Rider, Final: Robert Gesink (Rabobank)
Best Team Final: Astana
Herbalife Sprint Leader, Final: Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad)
Amgen Couragous Award: Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)
California King of the Mountains Leader, Final: Jason McCartney (Saxo Bank).
Peloton:The following riders dropped out: JJ Haedo, (Saxo Bank); Adam Hansen (Columbia); Svein Tuft (Garmin-Slipstream); Tom Boonen (Quick Step); Kjell Carlstrong (Liquigas); Daniel Oss (Liquigas); Carlos Sastre (Cervelo); Thor Hushovd (Cervelo); Cam Evans (OUCH); Jonathan McCarty (OUCH); Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell); Curtis Gunn (Fly V). 84 riders finished the 2009 AToC, down from 136 who started.
Forty seconds after the Schleck-Nibali sprint in Escondido, which was thronged with tens of thousands of fans, George Hincapie of Columbia-Highroad rounded out the day’s podium by out-sprinting a 29-strong chase group. That group included all of the top men, including Leipheimer and three of his teammates, Lance Armstrong, Yaroslav Popovych and Chechu Rubiera.
After pulling the peloton for most of the past eight days, the Astana support men couldn’t follow the final attacks by the Garmin-Slipstream and Saxo Bank team on Palomar. Garmin’s Tom Danielson and Dave Zabriskie elevated the pace before Saxo’s Jens Voigt leapfrogged off an acceleration by his teammate Andy Schleck, who was pulling his brother. “Andy set a really fast pace. I was ready to knock him off his bike,” quipped stage winner Fränk Schleck.
Besides the three Saxo Bank men, two Garmins and Leipheimer, also in the Palomar break were two Rabobank riders, climber Robert Gesink and time trialist Stef Clement, along with Columbia’s Michael Rogers and Nibali. Voigt led the 10 men over the 5,123-foot peak ahead of Leipheimer and Gesink.
On the final slopes, the riders raced through a thick phalanx of fans, thousands of whom had camped out overnight. “It felt like the Alps in July,” Leipheimer said, “not California in February.”
Zabriskie had his own take. “The crowds were tripping over each other at the top. I don’t think they knew what they were doing like they do in the Tour de France,” he said. “So I was trying to be careful not to hit them.”
The giant Palomar ascent is not especially steep, but by climbing for 13 miles, it tested every rider in the field. It was too much for some. Eight riders didn’t finish the stage, and another five didn’t start, including Tour de France champ Carlos Sastre and two-time Paris-Roubaix winner Tom Boonen. Just 84 riders finished the 806-mile tour, compared with 77 last year.
“The mountain was hard, a bit too hard for the last stage,” Rogers said, “and I think most of the riders agree with me.” Again, Zabriskie had a different view. “I’ve done Palomar many times,” he said. “We usually drive to the bottom and then ride straight up, so it was easier getting a warm-up before we got there.”
Once on the fast, non-technical descent, racing through a rocky, chaparral-like landscape, Nibali and Schleck began their brave 53-mile breakaway. They were helped when the pace slowed behind as Leipheimer, Zabriskie and Rogers waited for their main teammates to catch up with the front group.
Two of those who caught back, Rabobank’s Bauke Mollema and Rock Racing’s Glenn Chadwick, managed to join Nibali and Schleck; but they faded again on the 9-percent slopes of Cole Grade with 21 miles still to race. “Nibali really speeded up on that last climb,” Schleck said. “After that, it was pretty hard to hold off the chasers. I don’t like the flat roads so it was a big effort for me.”
Huge crowds
Although this final stage was one of the hardest the Amgen Tour has ever tackled, it didn’t change much, except for Nibali moving up from 10th to sixth overall. But it did set a new standard for spectators. “We had a milestone today that will resonate with this race,” race director Jim Birrell said. “In 25 years of organizing bike races, I’ve never seen the size of crowds we had today in the United States on any single day of racing.”
It was estimated that 300,000 watched Sunday’s racing, to push the race’s total number of spectators to a record 2 million for the nine days. A big reason for the massive interest in the race — both on the road and in the media — was summed up by two banners sitting side by side on the roadside in Escondido. They said: “Go Levi” and “Welcome Lance.”
Armstrong’s comeback has generated more crowd interest than anyone could have imagined, And it resonated with the riders. “I was very impressed with the event,” Armstrong said. “Everyone enjoys the race. The crowds were simply amazing. It was a tough final day, a great race, and it was good to be back in it. Hats off to the organizers, the state and the people for coming out. I’m excited to be back, but I don’t know if I’ll be back in 2010.”
The Texan’s thoughts were echoed by Aussie Michael Rogers. “The crowds were nothing short of amazing,” Rogers said. “They make the race more enjoyable for the riders, and make us race harder. And I’m stoked to finish third because the caliber of the field is like the Tour de France.”
Three for Levi
Rogers ended up in third, 45 seconds behind Leipheimer, while Zabriskie kept second place, at 36 seconds. The King of the Mountains title went to Saxo Bank’s Jason McCartney; Columbia’s Mark Cavendish was the points winner; and Gesink took the Best Young Rider award for the third time. But this year’s race will be remembered for Leipheimer’s hat trick.
“I’ve been trying to articulate the feelings I’ve got on taking this race three times,” Leipheimer said. “To win it once was huge, to win it twice I was a little bit lucky, and this is the sweetest victory of the three. I told Lance the other day that I don’t know how the hell he won seven Tours in a row. You can’t get second place because that’s losing.”
Leipheimer then complimented his Astana teammates. “We had the best team in the race,” he said. “We didn’t need a lot of communication between each other because we’ve all been doing this for so long. And it’s been a long hard road to get to this point. But to have a guy like Lance to back you up, it’s a lifelong dream for me. The team really had to work hard all week. They led, they sweat, and they cried.
“I need to pay these guys back. I’ll be working for Alberto (Contador) in Paris-Nice, riding for Lance in the Giro, and we’ll have our best team in the Tour.”
As for the key moments of his third victory in the fourth Amgen Tour, Leipheimer said, “I’ve dreamt many times when training in the winter about making a move like the one I made on Bonny Doon (on stage 2), when the conditions are horrendous and you go for it. And then there’s the half-hour that decides the whole race in the time trial at Solvang.”
Team manager Bruyneel praised Leipheimer and said the whole team enjoys riding for him. “It was a harder and more difficult victory than ever,” Bruyneel said. “But everybody knows Levi is going to be ready if he says he is going to be ready. He already had the fastest time trial position but he went back to the wind tunnel two times this winter. Levi always delivers when he says he’s gonna be there.”
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