Lance Armstrong's return to pro cycling on US soil adds excitement to the upcoming Amgen Tour of California, but BikingBis readers are picking two-time champion Levi Leipheimer to win the race.
The 35-year-old member of the Astana team received 43% of the votes cast in a 2-day blog poll here.
Teammate Armstrong finished second in the poll, with 12% of the vote, and Christian Vande Velde of Garmin-Chipotle finished third with 10% of votes cast. Returning to cycling after a two-year doping suspension, first year champion Floyd Landis received 9% of the votes.
All 3
Leipheimer has raced in all three previous Tours of California. In 2006 he won the prologue, but finished in 6th overall as a member of Gerolsteiner cycling team. The second year he put on the golden jersey after the prologue and never had to give it up the entire week.
Last year, a time trial specialist by the name of Fabian Cancellara won the prologue; but Leipheimer turbo-charged his time-trial performance later in the week and beat the Swiss by a full minute, ensuring his victory.
Leipheimer certainly seems like a good choice this year, as well. In addition to his own strong conditioning, he's got Armstrong, Chris Horner, Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito, Yaroslav Popovych, Jose Luis Rubiera, and Michael Schar in his corner. Team manager Johan Bruyneel will direct the tactics.
In fact Armstrong touted Leipheimer in an interview with James Raia at CyclingExaminer:
“… Levi (Leipheimer) is super motivated and super, super fit which he confirmed to us here at training camp. So we just have to ride for him and hope that he hammers the time trial as hard as he can like he did last year.”
Results
Thank you to all 55 readers who participated in the poll. Here are the results:
Levi Leipheimer — 24 votes; 43%
Lance Armstrong — 7 votes; 12%
Christian Vande Velde — 6 votes; 10%
Floyd Landis — 5 votes; 9%
George Hincapie — 3 votes; 5%
Andy Schleck — 3 votes; 5%
Tyler Hamilton — 2 votes; 3%
Ivan Basso — 2 votes; 3%
None of the above — 3 votes, 5%
Don't know for sure who the three “none of the above” favor, although one reader from Santa Cruz left a comment saying he was favoring hometown hero Ben Jacques-Maynes on the Bissell cycling team.
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