Photo by Ken Conley

By Stephanie Gutowski

With much of the media focus squarely on the return of Lance Armstrong (Astana) and Floyd Landis (Ouch), Levi Leipheimer (Astana) has been quietly setting his eyes on an Amgen Tour of California three-peat.

“I’ve won the race for the last two years so it’s really no question that I am a favorite for the race,” stated Leipheimer at the Santa Rosa press conference last week. “There are other riders on the team who can win and you never know what can happen in a race. A breakaway can go up the road that has a team mate of mine in it and if it’s a combination that we feel that he’s the best rider in that breakaway, that he has the best chance to win and no one else chases it down, then that breakaway can go on, take a bunch of time and a team mate of mine can go on and win the race, that’s always part of cycling that’s the sport. You can’t always say that it has to be this person, but I will have every chance and every bit if support from the team to win again, for sure.”

“It’s (Armstrong’s return) certainly gained a lot of media attention, Lance has gained a lot of media attention and that’s all positive,” continued Leipheimer. “I think that he’s increased the pie of cycling media not necessarily taking any away from anyone or another team or whatever. It’s just that cycling is covered more so and there’s nothing wrong with that. We need that, it’s tough times and it’s great for our sponsors, it’s great for our team. I mean it couldn’t be any better, he’s such a positive influence on the team, like I’ve said before you got some of the best professionals in the world, you’ve got Alberto, Lance, Chris Horner, just to name three and it sets an example for the rest of the team, it brings that level of professionalism up for the rest of the team.”

Photo by Ken Conley

When asked if Armstrong would be a factor Leipheimer stated, “Certainly he can be a factor. I think he’s already shown at the Tour Down Under he was strong, he was in the mix whether he’s at his best I doubt it, I think he can improve but that’s normal. I think in his head he’s thinking that as well, he’s using these races to get back into it. You know cycling is usually a long process of building and building upon fitness over the years so certainly his body has memory but it might take a few races to get back and certainly he’s looking for the Giro and the Tour later on anyway so it’s no shame if he’s not one hundred percent at the Tour of California.”

“It’s Tour of California and it’s the biggest race in the US so I think naturally that all the best riders will be there. I think what you are saying, now at this point, it’s history compared to others like Coors Classic… yeah I think, I don’t know I can say that it might be the greatest collection of US cyclists of all times but I’m sure that Andy Hampsten might disagree and I don’t know, that’s up for debate. That’s maybe one for the audience to discuss, certainly a very strong contingent though. You have so many great American riders on so many different teams, I don’t know if you can argue that that’s ever happened before, I don’t think that’s ever happened before.”

Leipheimer admits that he has not scouted the entire course. “We had plans to go down and ride Palomar but I think that logistically it’s just not worth it so I won’t be seeing Palomar beforehand. Of course I’ve seen the Solvang time trial a number of times so I don’t need to worry about that. I have seen the new stage to Santa Cruz. I’ve seen stage three and the rest of it I think we can handle without seeing it. I think the time trial stage is the most important stage but there’s a lot of unknown before we get to Solvang. The race could be aggressive and we need to just pay attention because there’s not really a specific climb or stage where we can go to the front, control the race and really be aggressive and blow it apart so to speak.”

Leipheimer will have his eyes on riders like Landis and even team mate Armstrong. “ I think you know one of the biggest threats is obviously Floyd. It’s his comeback race and he’s the only other rider to have won it. He has been out for a couple of years so that’s a little bit of an unknown. Slipstream and Columbia-High Road. Those are American teams that want to do well. California has really grown to be one of world’s biggest races in such a short time. Now it’s an important race for all the teams and their sponsors and everybody is looking to do well. There could be a surprise this year. Riders that stick out in my mind are Floyd, Dave Zabriskie, I think Lance will be good.”

Leipheimer is also a four-time top-10 finisher at the Tour de France and won a stage of the race in 2007. That same year, he won the U.S. Professional Championships, while also winning two stages at the Tour de Georgia and one at the Tour of Missouri. In 2008, he won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics. He has won four stages of the Amgen Tour of California while winning the overall GC jersey, and has also won the King of the Mountain jersey in the inaugural race.

The race begins with a Prologue in Sacramento on Saturday.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 1:48 am and is filed under Team. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.