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Levi rode the time trial of his season so far beating out the closest competitor by 29 seconds to retain the race leaders jersey. He did it on a Trek TTX 9.9 SSL, which Scott Daubert of Trek was kind enough to talk to us about.
Photo c. Stephanie Gutowski
Ben Day finishes 17th in Solvang Time Trial.
Solvang, California - The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team came into the Solvang 15 mile time trail exhausted like the remaining riders after the 7.5 hour victory ride in stage 4 by Dominique Rollin. It was a nice break for the team in Solvang with only one transfer today from the San Luis Obispo finish to Solvang. The team spent 2 weeks in training camp in Solvang so was eager to get on with the longer time trial of the race here. The fans were strong again and the weather brightened up and the sun shined on the field as the new course demanded some tough work.
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Leipheimer Retains Overall Lead in 2008 Professional Road Race Heading Into Seventh Day
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| Photo by Ken Conley |
SOLVANG, CALIF., – Enthusiastic fans in Solvang welcomed professional cyclists from 17 international and domestic teams for the critical Stage 5 individual time trial of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California. After a challenging day of racing yesterday, the riders were faced with a 15-mile course that was dominated by Levi Leipheimer (USA) of Astana for the second consecutive year. Besting David Millar (GBR) of Slipstream Chipotle Presented by H30 by 29 seconds, Leipheimer further built on his overall lead in the 2008 race and will wear the Amgen Leader Jersey going into Stage 6 tomorrow.
Moving into second and third were Slipstream Chipotle Presented by H30 riders David Millar and Christian Vande Velde (USA), respectively.
Racing on a 15-mile course in surprisingly dry conditions, Leipheimer rolled out of the start gate with confidence. Coming off a savage 135-mile stage on Thursday, most of the cyclists struggled to beat the 33-minute barrier. Of the early riders, Bradley Wiggins (GBR) of High Road posted 32:16, which was good enough to keep the lead for the first part of the day.
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| Photo by Ken Conley |
With a solid ITT performance, Levi Leipheimer holds onto the Gold Jersey for another day.
Full General Classification results after the click.
After yesterday’s epic slog down the California coast, the race remained very tight. Barely a cough separated the first ten riders on the General Classification which meant that the 15 mile (24km) Individual Time Trial around Solvang would once again play a very important role in the composition of the final GC. BMC’s Alex Moos having managed his resources very well all week, succeeded at delivering an excellent performance.
One of his best time trials ever
According to John Lelangue, the BMC Racing Team had every reason to be happy today. “We are happy with the results today,” Lelangue said after the race. “Alex put in a very good time trial, particularly since he is not a specialist at flat courses such as these. He generally excels much more in climbing TTs.” With a field heavily stacked with some of the best time trialists in the world today, the task of keeping close was indeed daunting. “Looking at the finishing times, especially when we remove Leipheimer who is probably the best time trialist around at the moment, Alex’s time is very competitive,” Lelange reported. “For example, I don’t think Alex has ever finished so close to Cancellara.” When reached for comment, Alex Moos said, “I’m not entirely certain where I am placed on the GC after this, but things went well on the course and I am very content with my efforts.”
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Overall Leaders (General Classification)
First Place - Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana
Second Place - David Millar (GBR), Slipstream Chipotle Powered by H30
Third Place - Christian Vandevelde (USA), Slipstream Chipotle Powered by H30
Stage 5 Winners
First Place - Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana
Second Place - David Millar (GBR), Slipstream Chipotle Powered by H30
Third Place - Christian Vandevelde (USA), Slipstream Chipotle Powered by H30
Full ITT results after the click
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Time trial specialist Tom Zirbel, on his third year with Bissell Pro Cycling team, is starting the year healthy and is focusing for the Amgen Tour of California Time Trial.
The 29-year old Zirbel was diagnosed with a blood clot in his leg back in March, and a pulmonary embolism in July, but returned strong at the US Pro Time Trial in September and finished fourth with only fifteen seconds off the winner’s time.
I sat down with the 6 foot four inches tall Zirbel, nicknamed Thor by team mates, prior to the start of the Tour of California to get his thoughts on the past season and his future.
Lyne Lamoureux: What’s the plan this year? Are you going to stay healthy?
Tom Zirbel: Yeah, that’s priority one. I think I have my condition under control for the most part. I’m going to stay on medication and just kind of feather it. It’s blood thinners so you don’t want to go too high, with the risk of crashing, I’ll be above, you know, normal.
Lyne: What happened last year?
Tom: It started after the Tour of California, the symptoms, cramps in my leg, and they just persisted for weeks at a time. The reason I didn’t get it checked out earlier is that I could ride once I warmed up like 20 minutes with the blood flow I could actually ride and race. So I just let it go, but then when my blood pressure went back down, it got so bad that I couldn’t walk on it. I have a buddy Mike Friedman who had the same thing a year before, the fall before, so I just called him, It dawned on me ‘hey those are kind of similar symptoms’, just in the middle of night when I was hobbling to go to the bathroom, it just dawned on me and then I couldn’t sleep that night and the next morning got checked out and that’s what it was. Tried to come back too early, against doctor’s orders, in July just about killed myself, was back in the ER, ICU for a few days, so I think we have under control now, a nice little balance, yeah I’m actually consulting with doctors now instead of you know (laughs) self-medicating, so that’s good.
Lyne: You came back very strong last year with your 4th place finish at US Pro Time Trial, were you back at 100% at that point?
Tom: I didn’t feel like I was. I did a lot of threshold training which is great for time trial, it’s not good for road racing necessarily because I wasn’t able to keep up with accelerations like my two minute power was slow and everything. On a road where I could go for 30 minutes I could do really well. That’s all the training I did, and that’s sort of similar to how I’m approaching the beginning of this season because my goals are to win time trials at least in the early part of the season. So I expect to struggle a little bit in the road races, kind of hang on for dear life at some point, try to conserve as much energy as I can and get myself relatively fresh to Solvang. Prologue and Solvang those are my goals.
Lyne: You are usually better at longer time trials than prologues, right?
Tom: Yeah, I think of myself as a longer time trialist but I’ve had some success in the lower time trials, I did a lot of track stuff last year which was 4k about the distance of the prologue so I feel pretty confident in both. They are both primarily aerobic systems so it’s the same system working so I don’t consider a disadvantage to be shorter.
Lyne: What are your goals for the rest of the year, after Tour of California?
Tom: I hope to just work on the things I’m not really good at, the acceleration, the positioning, the tactics, I’m still learning every race. I expect with the team mates that I have that I think I’m going to learn a great deal, there are a lot of guys with great experience. Bringing Burke (Swindlehurst) and Aaron (Olson) on the program, along with Ben (Jacques-Maynes), people like Rich England, (Scott) Zwizanski, these guys have been around for years and it’s going to help, just riding next to them, I’m looking forwards to it.
Lyne: So is that what you’re going to do, just pay attention to what the others do?
Tom: I would like to… if the team wants me to develop into a GC rider and that’s kind of the indication, I need to learn how to conserve energy, be at the front, all these little nuance things that people have been around for years do everyday and I still struggle with it (chuckles)
Lyne: How long have you been racing?
Tom: 4 years, 5 years, I still feel new. I came from a running background so, the engine was there, but the tactics and everything else…
Lyne: So what made you go from running to cycling?
Tom: Injury. I’m a big dude, I ran a marathon, I ran collegiately, I ran seriously post-collegiately for a couple of years, it’s just my body doesn’t like high mileage.
Lyne: Are you looking forwards to any races this year? Or dreading any?
Tom: Anything with steep climbs I dread. But I like the long and hard races like Leelanau, Univest type races, hilly, no time to recover, just go, go, go. But no real extended climbs because I tend to struggle a little bit on extended climbs especially steeper, I can’t keep up with the fly weights like Burke (chuckles)
Lyne: Third year on this team, what is it that you like about this team?
Tom: I don’t really count last year with so few races. It’s good people, they hand select people based on their character and their riding ability and I love the management. They know how to put just the right amount of pressure of you where you don’t feel overburdened and you don’t feel stress in your life. Most of the desire comes from within, they know at this level that it’s not going to help to put too much pressure on you. They know how to get the most of you, they’ just great people to be around.
Photo c. Larry Rosa Photography
Amgen Tour of California defending champion Levi Leipheimer said the individual time trial is the most important stage of the entire race. At just 15 miles, the riders will crank up the speed to the max in a race against the clock attempting to cover the primarily flat course that has one short, steep climb faster than anyone else. The idyllic Danish village of Solvang, ripe with vineyards and farmlands along roads that have hosted training camps by some ProTour teams, will again provide the beautiful backdrop on this decisive stage sponsored by ADT Security Services. With the start and finish lines located only one block apart, it’s the perfect day for spectators to catch the action in-person…one racer at a time.
(stage description courtesy of the official Amgen Tour of California website: http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/ )
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