RadioShack rider moves to top as prologue winner Gretsch cracks
Rocketing clear with a strong attack inside the final kilometre, Levi Leipheimer today won the first road stage of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge and seized the yellow jersey of race leader. The Team RadioShack rider was strongest on the final uphill grind to the line, dropping Tour de France champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) plus the other contenders with his move and hitting the line seven seconds clear of Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Gobernacion De Antioquia – Indeportes Antiquia).
Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek), Evans, Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervélo) and Tejay Van Garderen (HTC Highroad) finished a further three seconds back, while prologue victor Patrick Gretsch (HTC Highroad) cracked on the final drag to the line, losing both a minute plus the race lead.
Leipheimer described the finale, saying that his team-mate did a lot to help him. “All of a sudden there were attacks…Andy Schleck went, Cadel Evans was up there and then my team-mate Ivan Rovny did a fantastic job,” he said. “I can’t say enough about him. We brought Andy Schleck back with just one kilometer to go. Rovny continued to pull really hard and I know he wanted to stop but I kept telling him to ‘Go! Go! Go!’ At 500 meters to go Frank Schleck put in a little attack and I followed him. I looked under my arm and I saw no one on my wheel. I knew it was rather early to go but I went for it anyway and it worked out.
“I’ve never won a stage like that with an explosive effort so in my old age I guess I’m learning some new tricks. I grew up in Butte, Montana and it’s a mile high plus I’ve spent the last three weeks at altitude in Park City, Utah. I feel like I’m acclimated and ready to race hard here in Colorado.”
The finishing burst plus the ten second time bonus for the stage win put Leipheimer firmly into the race lead, with the RadioShack rider ending the day eleven seconds clear of Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervélo). Van Garderen is a further six seconds back in third, with Evans on the same time; Gretsch is now 17th overall.
“Today, the strongest guy won,” said Evans. “Levi sat quiet and waited and waited and then put it all on the line in the last 500 meters. Chapeau to him. He was well-prepared and is riding well. The guys who are well-adapted and acclimatized to the altitude are always going to be at an advantage. I’m just sort of taking it as it comes.”
Early move shakes things up:
Almost immediately after the end of the neutralised zone, South African rider Jay Thomson (Bissell) got the hostilities underway when he attacked. He was joined by Bradley White (United Health Care), Will Dickeson (Jelly Belly) and Eduard Beltran (EPM-UNE) and the quartet worked hard together to build a lead of over five minutes after 19 miles of racing. Behind, the HTC Highroad team of race leader Patrick Gretsch and the Garmin-Cervélo squad of Christian Vande Velde and Tom Danielson were chasing.
Beltran was first to the top of the climb of Monarch Pass, beating White and Thomson to the summit. Dickeson was distanced there and slipped back; Beltran then sat up and went back to the bunch, leaving the other two riders out front. They had a three minute 50 second lead at the top of the climb, and this gap went out to four minutes 20 seconds.
However the HTC Highroad team of Gretsch and Garmin-Cervélo were determined to keep tabs on things and reduced the two leaders’ advantage to one minute 15 seconds with 30 kilometres remaining. White and Thomson were eventually caught with just under fifteen kilometres left.
Team Exergy then took over and drove the pace towards the bonus sprint in Crested Butte, where Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) beat Robert Forster (United Healhcare) and Fred Rodriguez (Team Exergy) to the line. The Italian persisted afterwards but was caught by the Ryder Hesjedal-led peloton.
Big guns fire in the finale:
The Rabobank team then took over, pushing the pace hard for Robert Gesink, but it was Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) who made the big move. He kicked hard inside three kilometres to go and got a gap, being joined then by two other riders.
However after dynamiting the main bunch, he was caught and then dropped right back. RadioShack moved to the front and worked hard for Leipheimer, while Evans sat on the American’s wheel and prepared for the final battle.
Andy Schleck’s brother Frank then lit things up, attacking hard. Leipheimer covered that, then went himself. Evans tried to chase but was unable to match the American’s speed. Henao was strongest of those chasing and drove hard to try to bridge across, but was unable to get closer than the final winning margin of four seconds. The yellow jersey Patrick Gretsch trailed in a minute back, enabling Leipheimer to grab the jersey.
He knows there is a big battle in store tomorrow, and said that the high altitude is going to make things very tough. “Having the yellow jersey makes it difficult for my team-mates tomorrow but at the same time the Tour of Utah is fresh in their minds,” he said, referring to his victory there. “They have that confidence in their legs. They know how to do it and we’re going to give it our best shot tomorrow. but it will be hard. I expect the Colombians to be more aggressive and in general I expect a much more aggressive stage than today.”
Although he said that he’s not in the same shape as in the Tour de France, Evans is hoping to ride strongly on tomorrow’s queen stage, a 209.8-kilometer race that climbs two 3,700-meter peaks. However he’s not sure how he will fare. “My recovery has been pretty terrible,” he admitted. “I came here with big ambitions, but not great expectations. There are guys who had time to prepare for it well, or recover from the Tour, or they didn’t ride the Tour. So we’ll see what we can do against them.”