(Update: Aug. 8, 2006 — Deutschland repeat doubtful for Leipheimer)
Looking for a new American cycling hero after Floyd Landis has crashed and burned in his Tour de France doping scandal? Try Levi Leipheimer.
The native Montanan who currently lives in Santa Rosa, California, won Stage 5 of the Tour of Germany on Sunday, moving up to 4th place and getting a chance to duplicate last year's Deutschland overall victory.
Leipheimer, 32, won this year's Dauphiné Libéré and finished 13th in this year's Tour de France. The leader of the Gerolsteiner team has signed a contract to ride for the Discovery Channel beginning Jan 1. It will be his second stint with the team.
On Sunday, Leipheimer joined a breakaway and attacked them with just over a mile to go before the finish in Seefeld. Another member of that breakaway, Jens Voigt of Team CSC, moved into first place overall.
Another mountain stage — a 118-mile “queen” stage — in the nine-dayTour of Germany faces the cyclists on Monday.
Leipheimer won the Germany tour in 2005 after a hard-fought battle with Jan Ullrich. Leipheimer is 18 seconds behind Voigt after Sunday's stage.
Other US cyclists in the Germany tour are Jonathan Patrick McCarty (Phonak), Bobby Julich (Team CSC), Tyler Farrar (Cofidis), and Jason McCartney (Discovery).
The Tour of Germany ends Wednesday.
See CyclingNews and VeloNews for more.
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