Leipheimer stamps his authority on Colorado race

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Levi Leipheimer continued his string of good results with a sharp attack to the uphill finish in Crested Butte to pull himself into the race lead of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.

The RadioShack captain bested his Tour of Utah foe Sergio Henao (Gobernacion de Antioquia) by four seconds while Leopard Trek's Fränk Schleck rounded out the top three seven seconds behind Leipheimer. Tour de France champion Cadel Evans (BMC), Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervelo) and best young rider Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) all finished in the same time as Schleck for fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Leipheimer picked up a 10 second time bonus for the victory, and coupled with his seven-second gap over Vande Velde at the finish the RadioShack captain moved into the leader's jersey. He holds an 11 second advantage over Vande Velde who is second on general classification, while Van Garderen moves into third overall, 17 seconds back.

"Obviously I am very happy to win and take the jersey," said Leipheimer. "It makes it difficult for my teammates tomorrow, but at the same they are fresh off of [the Tour of] Utah, they know how to do it and they have done it. We are going to give it our best shot tomorrow. It will be a tough day, the queen stage, but I think we are all very proud to have this jersey and to be leading the first ever USA Pro Cycling Challenge."

As expected, the three kilometre ascent to the finish wasn't suited to overnight leader Patrick Gretsch (HTC-Highroad) who finished one minute down and dropped to 17th place overall.

The peloton entered Crested Butte together with a full head of steam, having picked up the remaining two members of the early break, Bradley White (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) and Jay Thomson (Bissell Cycling), 14.5km from the finish line.

Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) won a hotly contested intermediate sprint in downtown Crested Butte five kilometres from the finish, and soon afterwards the finishing kick to Mt. Crested Butte began, the cue for Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) to attack.

"We caught Andy with just over a kilometre to go. I can't say enough about my teammate Ivan [Rovny] who did a fantastic job today," said Leipheimer. "Ivan started to pull really hard and he wanted to stop but I kept pushing him and he was giving it everything.

"With 500 to go Frank [Schleck] made an acceleration and I got on his wheel and there was no one on my wheel. I wanted to race from the front because we are at altitude, not a lot of draft and guys are coming unglued. I am acclimated and there was no reason for me no to go. I jumped with 400 metres to go and when I saw the 300 metre to go sign I thought, 'Oh boy that is a long way to go,’ but you gotta go for it."

While Leipheimer and Henao have proved their mettle in rarified air at the recently completed Tour of Utah, third place finisher Fränk Schleck hadn't expected to perform so well.

"To be honest I am very surprised about my third place today because it was the first time that I experienced the altitude," said the elder Schleck brother. "I've never tried altitude training because so far it is working really good so why should I change the way it already works? The only time I have gone as high or higher was on the flight here."

The Schleck brothers rode together into the finale, where Fränk urged his sibling to attack. "Andy and I raced the way we are used to racing and that is together. As soon as the last helper from Rabo swapped up, I said, ‘Andy if you can go now would be a good moment’, and I got a really angry hate look from him.

"He went anyway and he did his job, he tried for himself and that could have been a good one. He made the race harder and as soon as I caught him back, I went. Levi counter-attacked me and I just couldn't hold on to his wheel. He was the strongest today so hats off to him."

The early bird gets the KOM

The USA Pro Cycling Challenge peloton had its first taste of Colorado's high elevations with the 11,315-foot tall Monarch Pass situated 42.6km after the start in Salida. Monarch Pass offered the only mountains classification points for stage 1, which meant whoever crested the pass first would don the mountains jersey at the finish.

It proved to the perfect scenario for an early break, and four riders took the bait and launched an attack moments into the 159.9km stage. Bradley White (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling), Jay Thomson (Bissell Cycling), William Dickeson (Jelly Belly p/b Kenda) and Eduard Beltran (EPM-UNE) quickly found themselves four minutes up on the peloton after only 12 kilometres of racing.

Will Dugan (Team Type 1-Sanofi) jumped from the peloton in pursuit of the escapees when the break's lead had reached one minute and he came tantalizingly close to bridging to the front quartet on the technical roads of Weldon Creek. The 24-year-old American closed the gap to 20 seconds and had the break in sight, but could not make the junction on the steep rollers within the gated community. He would be absorbed by the peloton at kilometre 24, just shy of the start of Monarch Pass.

The lead quartet worked smoothly together and maintained their four-minute advantage over the peloton for nearly the entire 16.5km ascent of Monarch Pass. The cooperation ended, however, as the break passed the one kilometre to go flag for the summit. Dickeson started to falter and slowly drifted back and with 800 metres to the summit Colombia's Eduard Beltran surged away from White and Thomson amidst raucous applause from the spectators lining the roadside.

Beltran crested the summit alone to take maximum KOM points and the mountains classification jersey, while White and Thomson crossed together approximately 20 seconds later, followed by Dickeson at 50 seconds.

The race lead re-shuffled on the lengthy, high-speed descent as White and Thomson caught and dropped Beltran. Once the road flattened out in advance of entering Gunnison County, White and Thomson held a 20-second lead over Beltran and Dickeson while the field trailed at 3:15.

Dickeson had a moment of back luck as he rode onto the gravel shoulder and lost contact with Beltran as he sought mechanical assistance from his team car. Beltran didn't let up and pressed on in a solo chase of White and Thomson.

"We dropped the two guys and weren't sure if we should wait for them," said White. "We decided to ride within ourselves and see if they came back, but they didn't so we just kept going. With just two guys we were on the pedals all day. We went over Monarch Pass, descended 10 minutes, but pedaled all day after that."

Now on predominantly flat ground on the run-in to Gunnison and the first intermediate sprint, the riders faced an extremely stiff headwind through the desolate terrain. White and Thomson chugged along in the lead, while Beltran and Dickeson each rode alone, steadily losing time. Dickeson rejoined the peloton after approximately 80 kilometres, while Beltran finally succumbed to the chase 11 kilometres later.

"The headwind was tough," continued White. "I didn't get to see the peloton but I imagine it was across the road all day. [Jay] Thomson was a good guy to be in the break with. He works well in the flats, like myself, when it comes to big hills I'm not great so it was a good day for us."

With Thomson motivated for a stage win and White eager to make a bid for victory on the stage sponsored by UnitedHealthcare, his squad's title sponsor, the duo continued their lengthy stint off the front. The intrepid pair would ultimately prove to be no match for a motivated peloton in the stage's endgame, and their escape came to an end outside of Crested Butte as the teams of the GC contenders ramped up the pace in advance of Mt Crested Butte.

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