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Leipheimer wins Lookout Mountain ITT; Brajkovic takes lead in Georgia

By Jason Sumner, VeloNews.com
Published: Apr. 19, 2007
Leipheimer rides to the stage win
Leipheimer rides to the stage win
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

The Discovery Channel juggernaut continued its rampage through the 2007 race season on Thursday, with American Levi Leipheimer taking victory in the Tour de Georgia’s stage 4 time trial, while teammate Janez Brajkovic moved into the overall race lead.

Now, with massive climbing horsepower behind him in the form of Leipheimer and Tom Danielson, it’s all but assured that the lithe, 23-year-old Slovenian will be wearing yellow three days from now when this seven-day race finishes up in downtown Atlanta.
FullResults

“Today is what I was worried about,” said Brajkovic in the finish corral moments after taking 11th in the time trial, but placing in front of main GC challengers Christian Vande Velde (CSC) and David Gracia Cañada (Saunier Duval-Prodir). “We will keep the jersey tomorrow. I’m sure of that. I’m not worried now.”

Brajkovic time-trialed well enough to move into the overall lead
Brajkovic time-trialed well enough to move into the overall lead
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Friday brings the Georgia tour’s marquee stage, the 107-mile trip from Dalton to Brasstown Bald. Brajkovic holds a 12-second lead over Vande Velde, with Rubens Bertogliati sitting third at 1:22. But while Discovery brought its A-team climbers, Vande Velde will likely have to fend for himself if he hopes to challenge Brajkovic.

“I’m not going to worry to much about what they do,” said Vande Velde, who ended up 12th on stage 4. “I’ve just got to get up the climb any way I can.”

The hors categorie ascent concludes at the highest point in Georgia, 4783 feet above sea level.

On Thursday, Leipheimer was the only rider to break the 45-minute mark, posting a 44:51 in the uphill time trial, which started in the Civil War battlefield town of Chickamauga and finished 18.9 miles later atop Lookout Mountain. CSC’s David Zabriskie was second, at 41 seconds back, with Aussie time trial specialist Nathan O’Neill (Health Net-Maxxis) third, at 1:18. Danielson and reigning under-23 world time trial champion Dominique Cornu (Predictor-Lotto) rounded out the top five.

“It wasn’t easy, but what a beautiful course,” said Leipheimer, who added this TT win to the Tour of California prologue, time trial and overall race victories he picked up in February. “This course really separates the riders. You need the power and the experience to know when to push and when to recover. It was always back and forth, speeding up and slowing down. Between seven and three kilometers to go it kept rolling up and down. I kept thinking, ‘this is the last roller,’ and then there was another one. I was a little bit crossed eyed at the end, so I guess I rode it the right way.”

Following Wednesday’s curious affair, where 13 riders were allowed to gain more than 29 minutes on the field, Thursday got under way at 11 a.m. EST under clear skies. Weather did play a factor, however, with a brisk wind blowing steadily throughout the stage. The field was down to 113 after Navigators’ Ciaran Power was a DNS, the victim of a crash on the descent into Chattanooga. Power was taken to the hospital for a CAT scan, and while results were negative he was held out of the TT. Navigators lost another rider Thursday, when Viktor Rapinski missed the time cut.

Early fast TT times hovered in the 48-minute range until Slipstream-Chipotle’s Timmy Duggan rolled across in 47:54. His time in the hot seat didn’t last long, with his minute man Brian Vandborg (CSC) carding a 47:11. From there the top mark changed hands five more times, with Scottish time-trial specialist David Millar (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Dominique Cornu (Predictor-Lotto), O’Neill, Zabriskie and finally Leipheimer all taking it lower.

“It was good. I enjoyed it,” said Millar, who won the Paris-Nice prologue and will be among the favorites to take yellow at the Tour de France start in London this July. “I had no idea where I was going. I hadn’t seen the course so I lost a few seconds in that final few k. It was a great course, but I could have done with seeing it, to be honest, but I just didn’t have time to get up there.”

That was not a problem for O’Neill, who lives in Georgia and scouted the course last month. Unfortunately, that trip turned sour when O’Neill was involved in a car accident on his way home. He escaped serious injury but a photo posted on his website of the vehicle he was traveling in revealed the grisly extent of the incident. The SUV was mangled beyond recognition and two other passengers were flown to area hospitals. (Both have since been released.)

“I rode the Rome-to-Chattanooga stage, then this course the following day,” explained O’Neill, an eight-time Australian national time trial champion. “The next day was when we had the accident on I-75, and I’ve been on antibiotics since then because I had a staph infection in my arm [where he received stitches]. I figured when the GC went south yesterday, I’d throw everything into today.”

It was a solid effort considering the circumstances, but not enough to hold off Leipheimer, who is off to one of the best starts of his career. Putting 41 seconds into reigning U.S. national time trial champion Zabriskie is no small feat.

“I felt like I had a good ride, but I guess it wasn’t good enough,” said Zabriskie, who passed five riders, including minute man George Hincapie, on the run up the Lookout Mountain climb.

With the stage all but settled, the attention turned to the GC. Cañada entered the day in yellow with a three-second advantage over Brajkovic and Vande Velde. But the Spaniard imploded on the steep pitches of the time-trial course, ceding more than two minutes to his main rivals.

“For my style, the top of the course was not good,” Cañada admitted. “There was a lot of up and down. It was difficult after yesterday. Tomorrow is the deciding day. There is a hill that can still make a big difference. That is what I’m focusing on.”

Must be 5 o'clock somewhere
Must be 5 o'clock somewhere
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Brave words for sure, but don’t expect them to amount to much. This race is Brajkovic’s to lose, and that’s not something Discovery Channel seems willing to let happen.

Flying blind
A number of big-name riders did not pre-ride or drive the course before their start today, which cost each of them at least a few seconds. Although most of the 30.4km race featured winding climbs and descents, the final four kilometers challenged a rider’s handling skills almost as much as his fitness. After dropping down a steep hill at 60kph at the 4km-to-go mark, riders had to hit the brakes and bank hard to the left just before a huge cliff — and a stunning view of Tennessee and Georgia below Lookout Mountain — opened in front of them.

Riders had no time for sightseeing, though, as other blind turns and sharp kickers demanded their full attention all the way to the finish. Millar finished sixth, 1:47 down on Leipheimer, while Danny Pate (Slipstream-Chipotle), finished seventh at 1:55 down.

Baldwin was crowded out of his course preview
Baldwin was crowded out of his course preview
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

The former world U23 time-trial champion said he didn’t bother to drive the course this morning. “I didn’t think it was worth my energy of driving out and seeing it,” Pate said. “It would have saved me probably 10 or 15 seconds, but it wasn’t worth driving a half hour to see it, because that would have probably slowed me down 30 seconds doing all that driving around.”

Two-time national time-trial champion Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) tried to drive the route.

“We tried to see the course this morning, but it was so chaotic with so many [amateur] riders and the cops,” said Baldwin, who finished 22nd, 3:39 down.

“The [Discovery Channel] guys were riding and they had a police caravan and we couldn’t get around it, so we turned around. So unfortunately, we knew we needed to see it but we didn’t. I didn’t know the last 2k at all. I was very, very slow through there.

The new race leader
The new race leader
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

“But honestly, that stuff is technical, and you feel like you’re losing minutes because you’re riding the brakes, but in reality you’re just losing seconds. Either you have the legs or you don’t.” — VeloNews editor Ben Delaney contributed to this story

Tour de Georgia — Stage 4
Top 10
Stage
1 Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 44:51
2 David Zabriskie (USA), Team CSC, 45:32
3 Nathan O'Neill (Aus), Health Net-Maxxis, 46:09
4 Tom Danielson (USA), Discovery Channel, 46:22
5 Dominique Cornu (B), Predictor-Lotto, 46:32
6 David Millar, (GB), Prodir-Saunier Duval, 46:38
7 Danny Pate (USA), Team Slipstream, 46:46
8 George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, 47:06
9 Brian Vandborg (Den), Discovery Channel, 47:11
10 Ben Day (Aus), Navigators Insurance, 47:19


FullResultsOverall
1. Janez Brajkovic (Slo), Discovery Channel
2. Christian Vande Velde (USA), CSC, at 0:12
3. Rubens Bertogliati (Swi), Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 1:22
4. Jeff Louder (USA), Health Net-Maxxis, at 2:20
5. David Canada Gracia (Sp), Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 2:22
6. Kevin Seeldraeyers (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, at 3:32
7. Scott Nydam (USA), BMC, at 4:27
8. Timothy Johnson (USA), Health Net-Maxxis, at 5:09
9. Lucas Euser (USA), Slipstream-Chipotle, at 7:26
10. Ivan Santaromita (Swi), Quick Step-Innergetic, at 8:58

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