Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

(pic from Flickr)

The second edition of the Tour of California is in the record books with another win by a hometown racer. Levi Leipheimer took the reigns over from Floyd Landis as the next Tour of California champ. The race proved very popular with fans though it did not break the record of most attended sporting event in California. It just missed by about 100,000 or so.

The race continued to attract record crowds, besting its own record of 1.3 million fans last year, and shoring its place as the most attended cycling race in the U.S.

Not that 1.3 Million is a shabby number at all. The race continues to grow and it is a good chance for domestic US Pros to rub elbows with Euro ProTour Pros who are just starting to find their legs for the season.

Paolo Bettini snatched a stage win against the promising Gerard Ciolek of T-Mobile. The bobbling head sprinter is young and we should see more of him in the European circuit in the years to come.

David Zabriske received a concussion, Karsetn Kroon had a broken rib. George Hincapie came off a bit worse for wear as he broke his wrist and will have to miss his bread and butter races in the Spring Classics. Tough luck for Big George as he has to wait another year to avenge his broken forks from last year.

(pic from Flickr)

Ivan Basso gained the respect of his Discovery Channel team by doing a great deal of work up front as a domestique. Leipheimer went from saying that he was not too happy to have Basso on his team to praising the work that the Giro Champ was doing to support Levi’s quest for the Tour of California GC win. These early season races are probably just as much hep in team bonding as an outward bound adventure in the Norwegian wilderness. The work put in by Basso will pay well when (and if) Basso goes to France in July and needs the help of Leipheimer.

Ivan Dominguez took the final stage in Long Beach getting some exposure for Toyota United after they lost the services of JJ Haedo to CSC. Dominguez took advantage of a wild sprint that had Rabobank’s Graeme Brown sprint too early and JJ Haedo get boxed in behind several charging sprint trains. JJ Haedo however still has the record for stage wins in the Tour of California with four.

Levi Leipheimer raced a perfect race from start to finish. He is in top form already and could possibly ride this form to other race wins if Paris Nice is an option.

Jens Voight showed that he is like a switch he is either racing or not racing. It does not seem that Voight rides anything simply to get miles or form. If there is a number on Voight’s back then he will race simple as that.

CSC showed great strength in placing several riders in the top ten overall. The team shows tremendous strength all throughout the year.

(Pic from Flickr

One rider that was not really mentioned was Franco “Porno Hair” Pelizotti who placed ninth overall.
Not many pictures are available of Franco so digging through the Flickr photo pool I came across the pic above by visceralpleasures

Overall another great edition of the Tour of California with a better field than last year. Although there were no lead changes it was still a great race to watch.