Viviani makes it two stages wins in a row

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Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) secured his second consecutive bunch sprint victory in the dramatic finale of stage 5 in Breckenridge. The Italian out-paced Jamie Castaneda (EPM-UNE) in second while his lead-out man Daniel Oss rounded out the top three in a diminished peloton of 50 riders after the day's early break of Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek), Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), Thomas Peterson (Garmin-Cervelo) and Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank) was caught 500 metres from the finish line.

All of the general classification contenders finished in the first group and the overall standings remained unchanged as Leipheimer maintained his 11-second lead over Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervelo) while Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) remains in third at 17 seconds.

"Today I didn’t think I would win," said Viviani. "But, we had a very good race. Ivan [Basso] was in the front all day and the finale was perfect for my team because Ivan was in the front and Oss and I were ready for the sprint.

"If Oss and I were in the first group then the sprint was going to be for me, for the green jersey and because I am faster than Oss. The team wanted to win the stage, for that to be me, it was more simple"

A tactical battle over Swan Mountain

Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) attacked his three all-day breakaway companions, Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), Tom Peterson (Garmin-Cervelo) and Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank), over the top of the final climb of the day on Swan Mountain, located 14.4 kilometres from the finish. He opened a 20-second gap but was caught with roughly five kilometres to go by his rivals.

Ten Dam counter-attacked, however his move was cut short by a chasing Basso and Schleck, while Peterson fell slightly off-pace. The trio continued to play a game of cat-and-mouse that allowed Peterson to regain contact.

Their tactics came to a dramatic end as the peloton swallowed the four men on the run-in to the finish line in Breckenridge.

"In the end I didn’t want it to go to a sprint and the final climb suited me but I could only get 15 seconds out of it," said Schleck. "They (his three breakaway companions) caught me with 4k to go and Ivan [Basso], Laurens [Ten Dam] and I gambled to long.

"With 2k to go we still had 40 seconds and before the last turn I looked back and they were coming from behind. I wish it would have been 500 metres shorter."

Tight GC contest with one stage remaining

Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) defended his general classification lead and will wear the yellow jersey going into the stage six finale, a 114.1km road race from Golden to Denver on Sunday. Once the early break of four riders was established, RadioShack set tempo but was content to let the escapees gain a fair amount of time.

"You can never win this race without a team and you can never win it without a team as strong as RadioShack," said Leipheimer. "They were not only strong but very smart and calm about the situation. It made sense for us to let the breakaway go and the stage win would have been amongst them. It would calm the race behind and they deserved it because they were out there all day. We had no interest in closing the gap because our only goal is to win the race.

"Other teams that were either interested in a stage win or attacking later started to chase hard and we were able to sit back and relax a little bit," continued Leipheimer. "We knew there would be some attacks on Swan Mountain and it was very fast over the climb. My teammate Ivan [Rovny] did an amazing job and pulled the last couple of kilometres and when we crested the KOM I looked over my shoulder and there were less than 10 riders. That is a sign that it was not only a hard climb but a hard day."

After regaining the leader's jersey on the Vail time trial stage on Thursday, Leipheimer has defended his lead for two stages. However, with only an 11-second margin on Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervelo), Leipheimer knows he must be vigilant on the concluding stage to Denver.

"I don’t want to think about that (losing 11 seconds on last day)," said Leipheimer. "I want to stay positive on what we are doing. We have done a great job so far and we have to carry that momentum into one more day."

Rabbit Ears Pass launches decisive break

Just after the summit of the stage's toughest King of the Mountain (KOM) climb, with an elevation of more than 9,400 feet over Rabbit Ears Pass, a breakaway of five riders emerged. The attack included Janier Acevedo (Gobernacion de Antioquia), Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek), Thomas Peterson (Garmin-Cervelo) and Laurens Ten Dam (RaboBank).

"[On] Rabbit Ears Pass, everyone was on the limit and I didn’t expect it to be that hard," said Schleck. "I did it in training and it was easy but during the race I was on the limit to stay in the front group.

"The breakaway went over the top and that I could be there it wasn’t a breakaway by chance, it was the legs which counted. I could see right away that there were strong guys out there."

Acevedo was the highest placed rider in the overall classification, 2:35 behind race leader Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack). However, the Colombian climber had an untimely mechanical and his companions did not wait for him. Basso was the next best-placed rider in the overall ranking, 6:28 behind Leipheimer, and once Acevedo had been dropped the break's advantage increased as the only real GC threat was no longer up the road.

As expected, RadioShack set the pace at the front of the peloton, holding the breakaway riders at a manageable four and half minutes during the mid-section of the stage.

The break's advantage threatened to creep up even further, but the UnitedHealthcare squad took over the pace-making duties from RadioShack in order to reduce the deficit in hopes of seeking a stage win. The Pro Continental team reduced the gap down to three minutes before the final intermediate sprint in the town of Dillon with approximately 25 kilometres remaining.

BMC Racing took over the lead of the peloton heading toward the final KOM of the day over Swan Mountain located a mere 14.4km to the finish line. Garmin-Cervelo was the next team to stretch its legs over the climb reducing the time margin to the breakaway to roughly 40 seconds at the top.