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Leipheimer wins Castilla y León
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Two stage races and two victories, not a bad start to the 2009 season for Levi Leipheimer.
The Tour of California champion finished safely in the bunch in Friday’s final stage behind winner Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) to wrap up the overall victory in the five-day stage race across northern Spain.
“Obviously, it’s a good start to the season, couldn’t be any better,” Leipheimer told VeloNews. “(The victory) was a little unexpected. After California, I was slowed down a little bit by that fracture, but now we see the silver lining in that. Not having done Paris-Nice has afforded me the energy to have won here, so that’s the good thing.”
Stage 5: Benavente to Valladolid. 152.5 km (94.76 miles)
Stage winner: Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
Final Overall winner Levi Leipheimer (Astana)
2009 Stage winners:
Stage 1: Joaquin Sobrino (Burgos)
Stage 2: Levi Leipheimer (Astana)
Stage 3: Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
Stage 4: Juan José Cobo (Fuji-Servetto
Stage 5: Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
Two-time defending champion Alberto Contador (Astana) served as Leipheimer’s gregario and finished second overall at 16 seconds back. Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Slipstream) claimed the final podium spot with third at 22 seconds adrift to cap a strong week.
The victory counts as Leipheimer’s fourth European stage race crown of his career.
His first Euro-side stage race crown was Route du Sud in 2002 in his first season with Rabobank. He won the 2005 Tour of Germany and the 2006 Dauphiné Libéré racing with Gerolsteiner.
Zabriskie was also very strong throughout the week in what was his 2009 European debut.
After finishing second to Leipheimer at the Tour of California, Zabriskie was third in the Palencia time trial and then rode well in the mountains, including putting down a piercing attack with about 4km to go to Thursday’s summit finish.
Contador pays back Leipheimer
The key to clinching victory was his decisive triumph in Tuesday’s 28.2km individual time trial at Palencia. The top-5 GC didn’t change despite two moderately difficult climbing stages Thursday and Friday.Contador lived up to his promise to support Leipheimer in the two mountain stages and helped his teammate secure the overall crown.
“I had no problem at all helping Leipheimer. When he went ahead in the time trial, I was ready to do it, because there are races for everyone,” Contador said. “This week has served us to form a group ahead of the more important race and I am happy to have given a hand to Leipheimer, who is usually helping me out.”
The Spanish climber set a brutal pace up the Cat. 1 summit to Lago de los Peces in Thursday’s stage to check any would-be aggression from the GC challengers, thus securing the overall title for Leipheimer.
“I felt kind of bad because I did absolutely nothing (Thursday). Everyone on the team really suffered a lot, except for Alberto, who is probably holding back a little bit. He was going fast,” Leipheimer said. “It was big chain-ring the whole way up.”
By Leipheimer’s admission, Contador was stronger in the mountains, but the 2007 Tour champ wanted to pay back Leipheimer for his support in helping him with both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España last year.
“The first day we were here, I was trying to help him out, he said, no, save your energy, because he said this year’s route is better for you than for me, and he was right,” Leipheimer said. “What goes around comes around.”
Leipheimer won’t race again until the Giro d’Italia in May and returns to the United States on Saturday.
“I’ll take the Giro as it comes,” he said. “The Tour is our No. 1 goal, we all have to make sure we’re at our best for that race.”
Armstrong crashes out
The 24th Castilla y León race started with huge anticipation with the presence of seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, starting his first European stage race since retiring in 2005.Everyone was keen to see how Armstrong would handle the time trial and climbing stages. That expectation was cut short when Armstrong crashed about 15km from the finish line in the opening stage, breaking his right collarbone and abandoning the race.
Armstrong returned to the United States and already has undergone surgery.
Despite the setback, Leipheimer said he expects to see Armstrong at the start of the Giro.
“To ride, yeah. I don’t think we should count on him to win, he needs to ride the race to get back into shape,” Leipheimer said. “It takes some pressure off him, I am sure that’s kind of nice.”
Final stampede
The 152.5km fifth and final stage from Benavente to Valladolid presented to major obstacles. Strong cross-tailwinds pushed along the peloton toward a rising finish up a hill overlooking Valladolid, once the former capital of Spain.Two “valientes” tried their luck and pulled clear at 49km, with Bauka Mollena (Rabobank) and Mikel Ilundain (Orbea) hoping to catch the peloton on siesta.
Caisse d’Epargne was vigilant, confident in another chance for Valverde. Despite carving out a lead more than four minutes, their adventure ended with about 15km to go.
There were some half-hearted attacks in the final kilometers, but Caisse d’Epargne kept the speed high until Valverde squirted away to capture his second stage victory in three days.
Valverde said he wanted to set up the win for teammate JJ Rojas, but Euskaltel-Euskadi rider Pablo Urtasun was closing in fast.
“This week has been excellent and I am very satisfied. After so many days without racing, I didn’t know what my level was,” Valverde said. “The hardest days were the first two, because it cost me a little to regain the rhythm of competition. Victories are very important for self-confidence. Now I will train and rest a little and race next weekend in Estella at the GP Miguel Indurain.”
Spanish racing continues with the GP Llodio this weekend and then the GP Miguel Indurain on April 4 and the Vuelta al País Vasco (April 6-11).
