A killer combination of cycling skills in the time trial and mountain stages paid off for American Levi Leipheimer who won the week-long Dauphiné Libéré bike race on Sunday.
The 32-year-old leader of the German Gerolsteiner team earned the championship without winning a single stage, but finishing among the top four (all Americans) in Wednesday's time trial and then staying near front in the following mountain stages.
Norway's Thor Hushovd won the final stage of the Dauphiné, which ended in Grenoble with a sprint to the finish line. Leipheimer finished 1 minute and 48 seconds ahead of Frenchman Christophe Moreau of AG2R.
What does the Montana native and current Santa Rosa, California, resident say about winning the week-long race that's billed as a tune-up for next month's Tour de France?
“This win will give … me a lot of confidence in the Tour. It's been a hard, fast, difficult race again, with never a moment's respite.”
Other Americans to win the Dauphiné: Greg LeMond (1983), Tyler Hamilton (2000) and Lance Armstrong (2002 and 2003). The Dauphiné win puts the Tour on notice that Leipheimer will be a leading contender when the race starts on July 1. He finished in 6th place last year. Other contenders include:
— Ivan Basso (CSC), who is sitting out after winning a grueling Giro d'Italia in May;
— Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile), who is racing at the Tour de Suisse (he's in 44th place after the second stage), which ends next Sunday;
— Floyd Landis, who won three one-week races this spring (Tour of California, Tour de Georgia and Paris-Nice) but who rested a bit and finished 60th overall at the Dauphiné;
— George Hincapie, who finished 10th overall at the Dauphiné (and 4th in a mass sprint in the final stage) and in the top 10 in several other spring classics.
More results and news at CyclingNews and VeloNews. Also OLN broadcasts highlights of the Dauphiné beginning at 5 p.m. (ET) Sunday, repeated at 3 p.m. (ET) Monday.
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