Here's an excellent crash photo posted at KWC at flickr.com and at his Spare Cycles website. The blogger/photographer writes about the crash at The Levi Rule.
Levi Leipheimer didn't come out of a crash on his home turf of Santa Rosa unscathed, but the Discovery Channel cyclist did retain the leader's golden jersey on Monday.
Australian Graeme Brown, riding for Rabobank, took the Stage 1 win at the Amgen Tour of California. American Dave Zabriskie (Team CSC) is reportedly out of the race and was sent to the hospital because of injuries in an earlier crash, CyclingNews reports.
After racing from Sausalito and up along the Pacific Coast before turning inland, the peloton faced three circuits around Santa Rosa before the finish line. As the sprinter's teams stepped up the pace to set up for the finish, a crash on the second circuit took out Leipheimer and more than half the peloton.
The race leader quickly got back on his bike and struggled to get back into the lead pack of 50 or so riders. Most of his Discovery Channel teammates fell back to try to help him back into that lead pack. It's something to see Ivan Basso riding in support of Leipheimer.
After trying to sort out the carnage, race officials decided to neutralize the three finishing circuits, which enabled Leipheimer to retain the leader's golden jersey. Usually riders are safe if they hang with the lead group within 3 kilometers of the finish. This time, everyone got the same time, in spite of the crash occurring about 6 miles from the finish.
The crash was laid to a cyclist losing control as he crossed a section of “Bott's Dots,” those small, raised ceramic markers used on roads in California.
Leipheimer told CyclingNews:
“There were a few guys on top of my bike and I was yelling at them to get up, they seemed too relaxed about the situation and I was trying to motivate them to get off the ground!
“Once I found my bike I had to straighten my levers, my brakes were blocking the rear wheel and my chain was off. I thought about taking Jason’s bike by he is too big. Once we started going George and Ivan [Basso] started to ride hard to bring me back.”
Brown won the stage in a photofinish against Greg Henderson (New Zealand) riding for T-Mobile and Discovery's Allan Davis of Australia. VeloNews reports that Allan Davis won the sprinter's jersey and Thomas Peterson (Slipstream) won the climber's jersey.
Check back with CyclingNews or VeloNews for the latest standings.
Tuesday's Stage 2 is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. (PT) in Santa Rosa and lead the peloton some 115 miles to Sacramento. A 2:13 p.m. (PT) finish time is predicted. The first half of the course is the hilliest, including the climb at Trinity Road, then hits the flats as it passes through Davis on the way to the state capital.
Top 10 in overall standings:
1. Levi Leipheimer (US) Discovery
2. Jason Donald (US) Slipstream — 1 second behind
3. Benjamin Jacques-Maynes (US) Priority Health — 5 seconds
4. Fabian Cancellera (IT) Team CSC — 6 seconds
5. George Hincapie (US) Discovery
6. Adam Hansen (Aus) T-Mobile
7. Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano (Col) Rabobank — 7 seconds
8. Ben Day (Aus) Navigators Insurance — 8 seconds
9. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Health Net — 9 seconds
10. Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile
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