Bissell’s Tom Zirbel improved his time trial result by a whopping 58 seconds over last year’s showing in the Solvang Time Trial at the Tour of California.  Zirbelicious finished in seventh spot at 39 seconds off the fastest time of Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and was the highest placed domestic rider.

Great showing by the Bissell team yesterday as they placed 3 riders of only 5 domestic riders  in the top 20 of the Tour of California Time Trial which was dominated by ProTour riders.  His team mates Ben Jacques-Maynes finished in eleventh and New Zealand Champ Jeremy Vennell was seventeenth.

Zirbel honed his time trial position during the past year where he changed the cleat position, crank length and the aero bars setup.

“It seems to have increased my timetrialing which is what timetrialing is all about. We’ll see, maybe it made a difference, maybe it didn’t but this game is so mental anyway so it doesn’t matter either way as long as I believe it.” said a laughing Zirbel prior to the race.

Zirbel raced in the Tour de San Luis in Argentina in January where he finished second on the time trial before being felled by food poisoning. It was perfect preparation for the big race in California.

“It was just about right for us to get back into it, it was a perfect segway to Tour of California to be honest, to get that first race out of the way, get the confidence back, okay I can still timetrial. We need to be constantly reminded.”

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Levi Leipheimer after winning Stage 6 of the 2009 Tour of California, the time trial in Solvang. It’s almost certain that Levi will be wearing yellow into Escondido this weekend.

Photo by Ken Conley

Photo by Ken Conley

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Levi Leipheimer (USA), General Classification Leader and Stage 6 Winner
Astana
On the race overall:
“This is the fourth year for the Amgen Tour of California and every year this stage is important. The overall race this year has been tougher. We’ve had one more day before the time trial and we’ve had some bad weather; the race is split up this year. Of course we have two hard days to come, but today has made the biggest difference.”

“There are two tough stages left; anything can happen. After today, I think the competition has less and less to lose, so it’s easier for them to throw caution to the wind and go for it. The competition is hard. You won’t find better competition before July. We just have to take it kilometer by kilometer; take it day by day and see what happens.”

On today’s win:
“I said this immediately when I finished, this time trial means the most because it was such a close race. I really respect Dave (Zabriskie); he’s one of the best time trialists in the world, and Michael Rogers is the three-time World Champion in the time trial, so to beat these guys is a big honor. It means the most since it was such a tight race; it was a great race.”

On the advantage of knowing the time trial course:
“I think we all know the course; we all know the facts. We know the lefts and rights, the uphills and downhills. Not in the sense of the word of ‘knowing,’ it’s more of a sensation, expectation and confidence. Having the history of winning this stage twice before and having that pressure to continue that streak is also a big advantage.”

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Photo by Ken Conley

Leipheimer Retains Overall Lead Heading Into Stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California

SOLVANG, CA – Fans lined up ten deep in some places along the 15-mile individual time trial route in Solvang to welcome world-class cyclists from 17 professional teams for the critical Stage 6 individual time trial of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. After completing the longest day of the race yesterday, the riders were faced with a course that was dominated by Levi Leipheimer (USA) of Astana for the third consecutive year. Besting four-time U.S. National Individual Time Trial Champion David Zabriskie (USA) of Garmin-Slipstream by eight seconds, Leipheimer further built on his overall lead in the 2009 race to 36 seconds and will wear the Amgen Leader Jersey going into Stage 7 tomorrow.

Moving into second and third overall were Zabriskie and three-time individual time trial world champion Michael Rogers (AUS) of Team Columbia-Highroad, respectively.

“This is the fourth year for the Amgen Tour of California and every year this stage is important,” said Leipheimer. “The overall race this year has been tougher. We’ve had one more day before the time trial and we’ve had some bad weather; the race is split up this year. Of course we have two hard days to come, but today has made the biggest difference.”

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Stage 6 top-five finishers:
1 - Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana
2 - David Zabriskie (USA), Garmin-Slipstream
3 - Gustav Larsson (SWE), Team Saxo Bank
4 - Michael Rogers (AUS), Team Columbia-High Road
5 - Jens Voigt (GER), Team Saxo Bank

General Classification top-five standings as of Stage 6:
1 - Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana
2 - David Zabriskie (USA), Garmin-Slipstream
3 - Michael Rogers (AUS), Team Columbia-High Road
4 - Jens Voigt (GER), Team Saxo Bank
5 - Thomas Lövkvist (SWE), Team Columbia-High Road

Stage 6 jersey winners include:
Amgen Race Leader Jersey- Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana
Amgen’s Breakaway from Cancer Most Courageous Rider Jersey- George Hincapie (USA), Team Columbia-High Road)
Herbalife Sprint Jersey- Mark Cavendish (GBR), Team Columbia-High Road
Rabobank Best Young Rider Jersey- Robert Gesink (NED), Rabobank
California Travel & Tourism Commission King of the Mountain (KOM) Jersey- Francisco Mancebo (ESP), Rock Racing

Ben Coates is back to show us the Trek TTX 9.9 SSL, the time trialing bike of choice for Team Astana. Here we have Lance Armstrong’s TTX geared up with SRAM Red components, including a brand new to competition SRAM return shifting R2 shifter. The Tour of California will be it’s debut, also new to the Astana gear truck is the new Aeolus 9.0 wheelset, soon to be available as a set, the team will be riding new new wheel in the front.

Ben Oliver, head mechanic of the Bissell Pro Cycling Team, shows us current New Zealand Time Trialing Champ Jeremy Vennell’s Pinarello FM1. A “Fantastic” looking bike, it’s all black with white lettering to celebrate his New Zealand Champion status. The FM1 utilizes a 1k weave and a different layup schedule, but shares the same shapes and geometries as the Montello. The team will be riding a new 90mm profile front TT wheel from Easton, currently in prototype form.

LOS ANGELES, CA – AEG announced today that for the first time the 2009 Amgen Tour of California professional cycling race will be broadcast internationally. The race will be broadcast live in more than 90 countries, which includes more than 200 million households across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania and Africa. The unprecedented coverage is due to the partnership established with the Amaury Sport Organisation (owners of the Tour de France) which has assisted AEG with the international television distribution of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California, further strengthening the partnership between the two cycling tour owners, which was announced in June 2008.

Amongst the line-up of broadcasters, Eurosport, the leader in cycling broadcast coverage in Europe, will broadcast the race live in 77 countries throughout Europe and Asia-Pacific. Abu Dhabi Sports in the Middle East, HiSports in Nigeria, J-Sports in Japan, SBS in Australia and Sky TV in New Zealand are also amongst the race’s international broadcast partners. In addition to the live coverage, highlights will be made available to fans in a total of 201 countries and territories, in 22 languages by a total of 23 channels.

Additionally, the race will be broadcast to international military bases.
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