Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

REUTERS/Felix Ordonez
Look out Lance, Astana has a multiple Grand Tour winner on the roster. Alberto Contador became one of five people to ever win all three Grand Tours. Contador won the Giro and Vuelta this year after missing out on defending his Tour de France title in July due to some odd reasoning by the [...]

The battle of multiple stage winning Spaniards got a twist as Levi Leipheimer took over the Vuelta lead after a brilliant time trial performance in the Vuelta’s fifth stage. Alberto Contador is sitting down in fourth place, while Alejandro Valverde is in third.

The Road Diaries (SRAM’s excellent website/blog) has a live chat with Levi Leipheimer today at 12:30PM. Now that this exciting Tour is almost over, does Levi see himself riding as a contender next year? Ask away.

The Road Diaries

(AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
Levi Leipheimer used his Giro Training camp form to get the top spot for the Dauphine Libere prologue. The American was riding some good form, while others such as Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans were using this race as the tune up for the Tour de France. The Dauphine is a good race [...]

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Levi is rumored to be switching to Astana along with Johan Bruyneel and defending Tour champion Alberto Contador. Meanwhile he is living it up by eating “blue cheese crusted tenderloin of beef and chocolate mousse cake” in Utah.
Levi is asked about doping particularly the Landis case:
“Yep, that’s pretty much all [...]

Levi from ToM Gallery

The Discovery Channel Team continues to dominate the Tour of Missouri with Levi Leipheimer winning the Stage 3 time trial while George Hincapie keeps the GC lead coming in fifth place. The two teammates have been on the opposite sides of luck since Leipheimer came on board. Levi is enjoying a career [...]

AP Photo/Elsbeth Schouten

Alberto Contador gave Discovery Channel and the Tour de France organization A.S.O. a surprise win today. The 24 year old Spaniard also won the white jersey of best young rider to boot. Hopefully he will avoid the same fate as the last man to wear Yellow and White in Paris, Jan Ullrich. Contador [...]

AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski

The order of the top three in the Tour did not get shuffled, but everyone is closer in time. This will probably not matter as Levi has already declared he will not challenge Evans for the number to spot and pull a “Vinokourov” on him. The reference to Vino is from two years [...]

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Wow the Albi TT was nothing but surprises all around.
Rasmussen does not meltdown or lose time. In fact he catches and passes his three minute man Alejandro Valverde.
Alejandro Valverde put in a time around Alessandro Ballan’s whoo must have been riding simply to get through the TT and hunt for stage wins in [...]

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Alexandre Vinokourov’s charge for the Mailliot Jaune could be a lost cause for 2007. Vino could not hold the pace of the top contenders and finds himself several minutes behind. Vino has been battling injuries and the pain showed today as he was riding with the group of second flight contenders and came [...]