Leipheimer, Rogers (24 secs) and Zabriskie (28 secs)
Sprint phenom Mark Cavendish racked up another win — his second in a row — for the Columbia-High Road pro cycling team at the end of a 135-mile stage from Visalia to Paso Robles at Thursday's Amgen Tour of California.
I couldn't watch it on TourTracker, but the post-race reports make it sound a little bit like the previous three stages: Team Astana lets a small breakaway stay out front most of the day. Sprinters' teams reel them in near the finish. Sprinter takes the win.
Team Astana's Levi Leipheimer (above left) remained in firm control of the yellow jersey for a third day. Friday's Stage 6 individual time trial around Solvang, however, will probably tell the tale of whether Leipheimer gets to win his third consecutive Tour of California.
See ITT start times
Top 4
Although Leipheimer is a certainly a strong time trialist, he'll be facing down cyclists in 2nd and 3rd place who have made the individual time trial their specialty.
Sitting in second place by 24 seconds is Michael Rogers (above center) of Team Columbia. The 29-year-old Aussie cut his teeth in track racing and won the UCI Road World Championships Time Trial in 2003, 2004, and 2005.
In third place, 28 seconds behind Leipheimer, is David Zabriskie (above right) of Garmin-Slipstream. The 30-year-old from Salt Lake City is the four-time National Time Trial Championships in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Then in fourth place (30 seconds behind) there is Leipheimer teammate Lance Armstrong, who has been known to win grand tours based on his time trialing abilities. BTW, he's riding his “LiveStrong” time trial bike that was stolen, and recovered, in Sacramento.
The Leipheimer, Rogers and Zabriskie all finished within 1 1/2 seconds of each other in Saturday's 2.4-mile prologue in Sacramento, so it seems like it would take quite an effort to unseat Leipheimer at this point. (Zabriskie finished 1.4 behind Leipheimer and Rogers finished 1.59 behind him.)
Route
The Solvang course is a 15-mile route around the city with a short, steep climb about midway. It starts at noon in reverse order of the standings; it should all be over by 2:45 or so.
If Leipheimer wins on Friday, I'd say he's home free. Unless he has a race-ending accident, I'd say his team is strong enough to protect him in the final two stages. The race ends Sunday in Escondido.
Top 10 overall
1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana
2 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia – Highroad, 24 seconds behind
3 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin – Slipstream, 28 seconds
4 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana, 30 seconds
5 Christopher Horner (USA) Astana, 34 seconds
6 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana, 38 seconds
7 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Team Columbia – Highroad
8 José Luis Rubiera (Spa) Astana
9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas
10 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank, 39 seconds
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