The young competitors on the domestic cycling teams at the Amgen Tour of California put the old hands on notice at Sunday's prologue: They've come to play.
Until the amazing effort by American cyclist Levi Leipheimer to win the prologue, several young riders from the domestic teams sat atop the leader board for most of the day.
For Leipheimer, it's a carbon copy of last year's win, except he did it in the jersey of the Discovery Channel pro cycling team instead of Gerolsteiner.
Riders from domestic teams were on pace to take the top three places on Sunday, until Leipheimer made the final ride of the day. He had to beat the 4:50 time of Jason Donald, 27, of the domestic Slipstream team. That 4:50 posted by Donald over the 1.9-mile course from San Francisco's Ferry Building to Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill was nearly 3 seconds faster than Leipheimer's winning time in 2006.
Liggett questions time
Donald's effort left an incredulous Phil Liggett wondering aloud on the Versus network whether the timekeepers had done their job right. “We've never spoken to this youngster before.”
No other cyclists were able to match the time of Donald, the 7th rider to start. His profile on the Slipstream team website says he's the Colorado Criterium champion of 2006, and won the 5th stage of the Tour of Gila.
Ranked second most of the day was Benjamin Jacques-Maynes, an American rider on the Priority Health team.
Great opportunity
The Tour of California is a great showcase for young cyclists in the US who want to make a name, and career, for themselves. Last year it was Juan Haedo, an Argentine sprinter for the Toyota United Pro team that surprised everyone with two stage victories. That resulted in his being picked up by Team CSC this year.
Maybe a contract with a big pro team is in the offing for Donald or Jacques-Maynes, because they certainly caught everyone's attention.
CyclingNews reported that Donald might have gotten his advantage by using lightweight deep dish wheels instead of using the typical rear disc wheel/deep dish front combo.
Top 10 after prologue:
1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery 4.49
2 Jason Donald (USA) Team Slipstream 1 second behind
3 Benjamin Jacques-Maynes (USA) Priority Health
4 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Health Net Maxxis
5 Adam Hansen (Aus) T-Mobile
6 Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano (Col) Rabobank 4 secs.
7 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) CSC
8 Hilton Clarke (Aus) Navigators Insurance
9 Ben Day (Aus) Navigators Insurance 8 secs
10 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery
All the results at CyclingNews.
Monday
Monday's stage begins at 11 a.m. in Sausalito and takes bike racers 97 miles to Santa Rosa. The finish time is approximately 2:44 p.m.
See the Tour of California website for the Stage 1 profile and top viewing areas.
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