Levi Leipheimer notched his second championship for the month of August by hanging on to win the 6-stage Tour of Utah on Sunday.
The victory in the national-level road-race event follows his Aug. 14 victory and course record at the Leadville 100, a mountain bike race.
He won each bicycle race riding without the benefit of teammates. He represented RadioShack at Leadville and wore the Mellow Johnnys kit at the Tour of Utah.
Following the end of the Tour of Utah on Sunday, Leipheimer told CyclingNews that the course profile made it difficult to develop team tactics:
“The fact that the whole week was a hard profile, hard course, took away a lot of tactics and played into my favour… Today I was able to control a little bit on the climbs and you're not really giving anyone a free ride.”
Memorial ride
This was Leipheimer's first time racing the Tour of Utah. He did so in memory of his late friend and riding partner, Terry McGinnis, the former executive director of the race.
He was the only cyclist competing without a team.
The race started on Tuesday with a prologue won by Taylor Phinney of the Trek-Livestrong team. David Tanner of V Australia won Stage 1, with Alex Dowsett of Trek-Livestrong moving into first place overall.
Win sets stage
On Thursday, Leipheimer won Stage 2. It was his second race victory in less than a week. It was particularly amazing considering he sounded completely spent after his Leadville 100 championship, which he called “torturous.”
Thursday's victory also gave Leipheimer a 56-second edge over Francisco Mancebo, the defending champion. The 34-year-old Spaniard finished in the top 10 in the 2003, 2004 and 2005 Tours de France, but was implicated in Operacion Puerto drug investigations and retired. Last year he turned up on Rock Racing and won the Tour of Utah; he joined the Canyon Cycling squad this year to defend his title.
Friday's individual time trial victory went to Phinney, but Leipheimer finished well enough to maintain his overall lead. Jeff Louder won Friday's Stage 4, a hilly criterium in Park City, but Leipheimer remained in 1st place overall.
The final stage on Sunday ended with a long climb to the Snowbird Ski Resort in the Wasatch Mountains. Leipheimer finished with stage winner Australian Jai Crawford.
Defending champ Mancebo finished in 3rd place, a minute behind the two top finishers.
See the Tour of Utah Facebook page.
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