Levi Leipheimer leads Vuelta a Espana bicycle race

Levi Leipheimer is wearing the golden jersey at the Vuelta a Espana after winning the 26-mile individual time trial on Wednesday.

The cyclist from Santa Rosa is the only US rider in the three-week stage race around Spain. His commitment to compete for Team Astana made him one of the few to miss the US pro cycling championships in Greenville, South Carolina, last weekend.

Winning the time trial and donning the overall leader's golden jersey will surely take some of the sting out of not being able to defend his US Pro cycling title.

The 34-year-old cyclist has been having the best years of his career lately. He won the Tour of California in 2007 and 2008, above. He finished 3rd in the 2007 Tour de France and won the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics for the individual time trial just last month. While sitting out the Tour de France with the rest of Astana, he won the Cascade Classic in Oregon.

The only other cyclist to wear the Vuelta's golden jersey? Floyd Landis.

Vuelta

Wednesday marked the 5th stage of the Vuelta, which started Saturday and runs through Sept. 21.

The race opened with a team time trial, which bunched up all the riders by team. Liquigas won that opening stage, but Leipheimer's Astana came in 8th, just 14 seconds behind.

A crash near the end of Stage 4 on Tuesday and the individual time trial helped unhinge the riders' overall rankings away from the teams. Leipheimer started the day way down in 25th place, 1:17 behind the overall leader, Daniele Bennati.

Favorites

Sylvain Chavanel of Cofidis is now in second place, trailing Leipheimer by 2 seconds.

Favorites Alejandro Valverde is in 3rd, 30 seconds behind; Alberto Contador of Astana is in fifth, 47 seconds behind, and Carlos Sastre of Team CSC is in 7th, 1:27 behind.

Many considered Leipheimer a super-domestique on Team Astana to overall favorite Contador. But his golden jersey now gives him a leadership role. We'll see how hard Astana battles to hold onto the golden jersey.

This isn't the first time that Leipheimer has tackled the Vuelta. He previously rode raced in Spain for the US Postal Service team in 2001, and finished 3rd overall.