Levi Leipheimer is currently the top American cyclist in the pro peloton. He's been that way ever since Lance Armstrong retired in 2005. Sure, there's been Floyd Landis for a quick moment, but that's another story. Throughout Levi's career, he's always shown the potential to do great things. His first real breakout party came at the Vuelta (where he is currently racing right now) in 2001 when he placed 3rd while riding for the United States Postal Service team of Armstrong. From then on, Levi switched teams, hoping to challenge for bigger and better races such as the Tour de France.

First he was with Rabobank, where he made the top 10 a few times and then to Gerolsteiner where he almost won a mountain stage in 2006. At the end of the 2006 season, Levi decided to return to Johan Bruyneel and race for the Discovery Channel team. This seemed to be the perfect fit. Discovery Channel just lost the retiring Armstrong and was looking for a new leader to replace him and it ended up being a bonus that it was another American. For Levi, this was a dream scenario. He now has the means and the support needed to win the Tour de France. All seemed good leading into the 2007 season.

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American Levi Leipheimer (Astana) won today's 42.5km time trial stage at the Vuelta! He becomes only the 5th American to win a stage in the Spanish tour and only the 2nd American ever to wear the leader's golden jersey (Floyd Landis was the other).

Leipheimer gained a good chunk of time off of his other GC rivals, including teammate Alberto Contador. He sits at least 30 seconds ahead of any other favorite. Tonight's team meeting should be interesting in determining the next course of action for Team Astana. Astana comes into this race with their full support for Contador but this amazing ride changes the dynamic a bit. I think Astana will likely hedge their bets by supporting both riders and may the best cyclist win!

See the results of this stage here.

I have to admit that I was way off on my predictions for the men's time trial this past Wednesday. Only one of my top 3 made it on the podium while the other two, including my gold medal prediction, didn't even contend.

Levi Leipheimer came through with a much deserved bronze medal for the States while Swiss Fabian Cancellara proved again that he IS the best time trialist in the world. A surprising ride from Swedan's Gustav Larsson helped secure silver for him. My pick for gold, Kim Kirchen came in 23rd, over 4 minutes back while Cadel Evans put in a strong 5th place considering the injury he suffered at the end of the Tour.

For those of you that missed Levi (and the American gold medal winner in the women's time trial, Kristen Armstrong) on the Today Show this morning, here's the link to the clip on MSN. Don't mind the 30 second commercial at the beginning.

Cyclists cruise to medal stand

It's been a few days since Spain's Samuel Sanchez won the men's road race over silver medalist, Italy's Davide Rebellin and Bronze medalist, the surprising climber, Fabian Cancellara. Much of the same field will now contest the time trial on Wednesday over the same hilly circuit course that caused trouble for many riders. The men will tackle the circuit twice for a total of 47km.

Many of the contenders for the time trial will be the same as the road race. But as we saw there, the race will probably be a bit more unpredictable than we'd like. The two most obvious gold medal favorites are German Stefan Schumacher and the big Swiss, Fabian Cancellara. Typically, I wouldn't put Cancellara as one of the favorites because this course is much too hilly but he showed great form during the road race and beat many of the other climbers to take 3rd place. For Schumacher, he must show that he can be successful in the smog of Beijing. If the road race was any indication, he may not perform up to par.

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Link: http://www.nbcolympics.com

For those of you willing to give up an evening of rest, don't forget to catch the live coverage (I think) of the Olympic Men's Road Race tonight at 11:00pm EST here. Of course, this is NBC and a major network so let's hope they don't cover equestrian for 3 hrs and show 30 minutes of highlights at the end. I can't guarantee I will be up watching it and if I (or you) don't catch the live broadcast, make sure to catch the tape delay coverage on TV starting at 10:00am EST on Saturday. From the looks of the schedule, they will run bits and piecies throughout the afternoon so crack open a beer or two and bring your patience.

In terms of the favorites, it looks good for Spain's Alejandro Valverde but since one day races are such a luck of the draw, the race is probably wide open. I am, of course, rooting for the Americans. Since Levi Leipheimer did not compete in the Tour, he has had his eyes set on the Olympics. Let's hope he can come through for the red, white and blue! Enjoy the show!

PS. Sorry for the late post and the time between posts as "work" has been getting in the way. I'll be posting more regularly soon.

Today's post will talk about one of the most important cycling traditions still existing in the pro peloton; what should not happen when the leader of the race (or any other potential contender) crashes.

Team LPR Brakes and Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval - Scott) seemed to not understand this. When maglia rosa Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) went down in a crash that also involved many other riders including Levi Leipheimer (Astana), Riccò, Danilo Di Luca and Paolo Savoldelli decided to attack. Of course, no one knows whether they knew there was a crash or not but the aggression lasted long enough that race radio would have informed them. Another clue would have been the countless other riders screaming at Riccò, Di Luca and Savoldelli to stop. What's wrong with these guys? Is winning their national tour getting to their heads that they don't think rationally?

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We found out today that defending Tour de France champion Alberto Contador (Astana) has a slight fracture in his elbow. This diagnosis was made during today's rest day following his crash on Saturday's stage.

Contador promises to continue but admitted that this condition may affect his aerodynamic time trialing position tomorrow. VAI CONTADOR!

Speaking of the time trial stage, Astana's Andreas Klöden will be under more pressure to perform following the announcement of Contador's injury. He has shown he has good form and we hope he'll be able to show his class by outdistancing everyone (except for Levi Leipheimer, of course). Stay tuned...

Link: http://www.letleviride.com/

I received this email today from LetLeviRide.com. It reminded me that I had signed a petition to show my support towards letting Levi ride in this year's Tour de France. While it hasn't worked just yet, Astana's inclusion in this year's Giro is a good start. In my opinion, it will be hard for Astana to get entrance to this year's Tour by the simple fact that those cronies at ASO are just so stubborn. They care more about having a Frenchman win the Tour than having a legitimately competitive Tour that includes all of the contenders. I hate to say this, because I like Cadel Evans and Alejandro Valverde and any other contender in this year's Tour, but their win will forever be marked by an asterisk. The fans will never know how they would have fared against an in form Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer or Andreas Klöden.

With that said, I am a cycling fan. I will watch the Tour. There is nothing like it in the world and it is the cyclists that make the race. I will take nothing away from their efforts and hope the best man at the Tour wins cleanly.

The Tour of Italy (or the Giro in cycling speak) started today in Sicily. Because the Giro has to stand out from the other grand tours, it started unconventionally with a team time trial. Lance Armstrong's team of old usually dominated this discipline so I expected Team Astana to do the same.

As usual, my day started early thanks to the time difference as I logged onto cycling.tv just before 9 am. This stage was a 23.6 km (14 miles) out and back course that was flat and would facilitate some fast times. As predicted, Slipstream-Chipotle burned rubber. McDonald's must have delivered some extra burritos because the extra salsa helped them win the stage with an average speed of over 56 km/h (33.5 mph)! Sure, they only finished with the minimum 5 riders and even burned David Miller to the waste side with 1 km to go, but they came to conquer the stage and that meant giving their all. It was tight on top of the leaderboard as the top 4 teams were separated by less than 10 seconds. Astana came in a respectable 7th, pretty good considering none of their riders even prepared for the Giro and finished with all 9 riders together. I, however, was a bit disappointed with that placing. C'mon Levi!

At the end of the day, Christian Vande Velde becomes the first American to wear the maglia rosa (the Giro's version of the yellow jersey, which is pink) since Andy Hampstem became the one and only winner of this event back in 1988. It's always a good day when an American shows the European's how it's done.

Tomorrow's 2nd stage would be anything but the conventional sprinters stage. It undulates through the northern shores of Sicily and ends with an uphill push in Agrigento. This would favor an attacking rider such as World Champ Paolo Bettini or even defending champ Di Luca. Back to Astana for a moment. I tend to think they are holding their cards tightly amongst themselves. I believe there's some form on that team and we'll be able to see that displayed as the Giro moves forward. Stay tuned...

Top 7 results for Stage 1
1. Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30
2 Team CSC
3 Team High Road
4 Liquigas
5 Barloworld
6 LPR Brakes - Ballan
7 Team Astana

See complete results here.

RCS recently announced the official start list of this year's Giro. Arguably the hardest Grand Tour on paper will be off to a rock'n start just based on who will be lining up on May 10th. You can view the start list here.

As you can see, Astana is bringing everyone including the kitchen sink in order to prove they are the strongest stage race team. What will make it hard is the fact that these such riders have not had any formal preparation for this competition. Typically, riders train for months in advance of a 3 week tour so a lot will be unknown. Some good signs include Kloden's recent win at the Tour de Romandie and the early season successes of both Contador and Leipheimer. I'll be watching closely on cycling.tv.

I personally would be interested in seeing how 36 year old Gilberto Simoni does. I've always been impressed with the way he rides in the Giro. Despite his growing age, he always seems to shine in his home tour. Other top picks of course, include defending champ Danilo Di Luca but I personally think he's a one hit wonder in grand tours. Speaking of one hit wonders, you can add Jose Rujano to that list too. Apparently, having pressure is not his cup of tea as he hasn't done sh*t since the '05 Giro.

As I continue to browse up and down the start list, no team really stands out other than Astana. Di Luca's team is untested but they do have 2-time winner Paolo Savoldelli waiting in the wings if DiLuca falters. Saunier Duval-Scott will bring a stacked team including Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli but they can't seem to challenge for the GC so it will be stage wins only. Too bad CSC won't bring Andy Schleck as he would have added another dynamic to the race. But I'll be rooting for the 2 US based teams, High Road and Slipstream Chipotle to do good things. They won't be GC contenders but stage wins are more than possible.

So we have it. A stacked field for the Giro in terms of individual cyclists but no one team seemingly strong enough to control things except for Astana. For most people, this makes for an exciting race. Stay tuned as I follow the race and provide my personal highlights and opinions to all.

Ciao!