Discovery Channel cyclist Levi Leipheimer beat the peloton to the top of Brasstown Bald (on right side of course profile) on Friday, winning his second mountain-top Tour de Georgia stage in as many days.
Teammate Janez Brajkovic of Slovenia retained the leader's yellow jersey after he and closest challenger Christian Vandevelde (Team CSC) of the US matched each other up the climb up the highest point in Georgia. Vandevelde trails Brajkovic by 12 seconds in the overall standings.
Crowds swarmed over the summit of Brasstown Bald, as Tom Danielson (Discovery) and Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home) finished behind Leipheimer. For those keeping score, that gave Discovery a 1 – 2 – 10 (Brajkovic) finish on the stage and first overall.
Last year's Tour de Georgia and Tour de France winner Floyd Landis was on hand at the summit to meet and greet.
In spite of his time trial win on Lookout Mountain on Thursday, Leipheimer started the day in 13th place, more than 26 minutes behind the leaders. All the favorites in this year's Tour got blind-sided by Wednesday's breakaway that gained 29 minutes on the peloton, virtually putting them all out of contention.
Even with stage wins two days in a row, Leipheimer is in 12th place, 24:48 behind the leader. In fact, he's 12 minutes behind 11th place Tyler Wren (US), Colavita. All the other so-called favorites — Danielson, George Hincapie, Dave Zabriskie, etc. — are behind Leipheimer.
So what's the big deal about Brasstown Bald, besides being a stage win? For one thing, cyclists climb about 1,650 feet in 3 miles, according to CyclingNews. The steepest section is about 600 feet long and rises at a 24% grade.
The last half-mile or so has a 20% pitch that finishes at 15% to 17%.
Those other two climbs shown on the race profile are Fort Mountain and Wolf Pen Gap.
Leipheimer's win on Brasstown Bald shows he's definitely retaining his top climbing form. He took the lead of the Amgen Tour of California in February on the strength of his prologue win up to Coit Tower in San Francisco, and held it throughout the race.
Stage results…
1. Levi Leipheimer (US), Discovery
2. Tom Danielson (US), Discovery, 38 seconds behind
3. Anthony Colby (US), Colavita, 1:00
4. Nathan O'Neill (Aus), Health Net-Maxxis, 1:06
5. Gilberto Simoni (I), Saunier Duval-Prodir, 1:19
6. Alexandre Moos (Swi), BMC, 1:25
7. Ryder Hesjedal (Can), Health Net-Maxxis, 1:29
8. John Devine (US), U-23 National Team, 1:30
9. Christian Vande Velde (US), CSC, 1:38
10. Janez Brajkovic (Slo), Discovery, same
Overall …
1. Janez Brajkovic (Slo), Discovery
2. Christian Vande Velde (US), CSC, 12 seconds behind
3. David Canada Gracia (Sp), Saunier Duval-Prodir, 3:04
4. Rubens Bertogliati (Swi), Saunier Duval-Prodir, 3:06
5. Kevin Seeldraeyers (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, 4:22
6. Scott Nydam (US), BMC, 5:35
7. Jeff Louder (US), Health Net, 6:00
8. Timothy Johnson (US), Health Net, 6:59
9. Lucas Euser (US), Slipstream, 10:08
10. Ivan Santaromita (Swi), Quick Step, at 12:15
Plenty more results at CyclingNews and VeloNews.
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