Spanish climbing specialist Iban Mayo rose out of two years of bicycling obscurity to win Saturday's 96-mile stage of the Dauphiné Libéré bike race.
Meanwhile, American cyclist Levi Leipheimer increased his overall margin in the week-long race which ends Sunday by finishing just one-and-a-half minutes behind Mayo, who sits in 15th overall.
“Today's stage turned out perfectly,” Leipheimer told CyclingNews. “I had the feeling I'd be good today, and I was. I didn't suffer at all. I just followed the wheels of the strongest climbers … Tactically, it was very easy for me.”
Hanging with the climbers was a good strategy today, as the bicycle route crossed three peaks in the French Alps — among them Col du Galibier and Col de la Croix de Fer — and ended at the summit of another, La Toussuire.
This was the first victory in two years for Mayo, a member of Spain's Euskaltel-Euskadi team. His career of late has been hampered by a shoulder problem, then with knee and back soreness as he prepared for previous Tours de France. The 2003 Tour saw his last major win on L'Alpe d'Huez.
Leipheimer is a Butte, Montana, native who now makes his home in Santa Rosa, California. He finished 6th in the 2005 Tour de France and is among the contenders for this year's title.
His closest challenger at the beginning of the stage was Russian Denis Menchov at 28 seconds. Menchov crashed on a downhill on Saturday, but was able to regain the yellow jersey group only to be dropped on the final ascent.
The team leader for Gerolsteiner has a 1:48 second lead over Christophe Moreau (AG2R Prevoyance) and 2:51 over Bernard Kohl (T-Mobile).
Among the other Americans, George Hincapie (Discovery) is in 10th, 6:48 out of first; David Zabriskie (CSC) is 29th and Floyd Landis (Phonak) is in 49th.
Sunday's final stage is an 81-mile stage that ends in Grenoble with one category 3 and three category 4 climbs.
More results and news from Saturday's stage at CyclingNews and VeloNews.
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