Levi Leipheimer won his second Tour of the Gila championship on Sunday while Aussie Darren Lill won the Stage 5 Gila Monster Road Race.
High winds and snow flurries, instead of high winds and heat, greeted the cyclists on the final day of bike race based in the Silver City, New Mexico, that has become a domestic training race for some elite cyclists.
Lance Armstrong, who launched this retreat to southwestern New Mexico last year to test his recovery from a broken collarbone, finished in 17th, 6:53 behind Leipheimer. Finishing second and third overall were Tom Danielson and David Zabriskie.
Armstrong, Leipheimer and Patrick McCartney, all members of the Team RadioShack squad, raced as Mellow Johnny's, which is the name of Armstrong's Austin bike shop. Danielson, Zabriskie and Tom Peterson, all members of the ProTour team Garmin-Transitions, raced under the name of Zabriskie's chamois creme — DZ Nuts.
Stage 5 is a mountainous 105-mile race that rolls out from Silver City to Pinos Altos. Lill, a member of the Fly Australia cycling team, finished 6 seconds ahead of three-man group. Leipheimer, Danielson and Rory Sutherland of United Healthcare finished about 10 riders back at 1:09 behind the winner.
The next big challenge for the Leipheimer, Armstrong and McCartney will be the Amgen Tour of California, which rolls out May 16 to 23.
Final results for the 24rd annual Tour of the Gila are available online.
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