Nebraska Cycling News

Leipheimer Scores his Fifth Major Time Trial Victory of 2007, While Hincapie Keeps the Yellow

BRANSON, Mo. – U.S. Pro Champion Levi Leipheimer continued to show his time trialing dominance as he hammered to the win Stage of the Tour of Missouri, an 18-mile Individual Time Trial.  With a time of 39:37, Leipheimer bested eight-time Australian time trial champion Nathan O'Neill (Health Net/Maxxis) by 16 seconds. Three-time Swedish time trial champion Matti Helimen (DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed) finished third, a minute and a half behind the leader. Leipheimer, who has also won time trial stages in the Tour of California, Tour de Georgia, and Tour de France, took a precise approach on the challenging course. “I had to punch it on all the middle climbs and try to recover on the downhills. It's kinda technical, how you gauge your efforts,” said Leipheimer.

The hills around the resort mecca of Branson challenged the 112 world-class cyclists that rolled off the start house at The Landing, the brand-new development on Lake Branson off of downtown.

Leipheimer wasn't Discovery Channel's only big winner today.  By virtue of his sixth-place finish in today's stage, George Hincapie was able to retain the Missouri Tourism Yellow Leader's jersey for a second day after taking the lead at Stage Two in Springfield. The win is also the second for Discovery Channel in as many days.
 
Will Frischkorn (Slipstream/Chipotle) put in a solid performance at the time trial, vaulting him up from 11th to second place in the General Classification (G.C.). David Cañada  (Prodir-Saunier Duval), is now third in the G.C., up from eighth place. Today's great performances move Levi Leipheimer and Nathan O'Neill up to 13th and 14th in the G.C., respectively. 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is currently 20th in the G.C.
 
Stage Three's time trial course took riders on an 18.0 mi/ 29.0 km journey, beginning in Branson Landing Town Square, a new upscale shopping and entertaining district, and twisting through the foothills of the Ozarks before culminating at scenic Shepherd of the Hills.  The course provided a wide array of challenges testing each riders resolve. “It was hard. There was nowhere to soft-pedal, nowhere to recover. It’s the sort of course that if you are good, you know it straight away, and if your legs are good, you find your rhythm right away. And if you’re struggling, you’re going to struggle. You can’t hide on a course like that,” said O'Neill.

While Hincapie will continue to wear the Yellow jersey, Dominique Rollin (Kodak Gallery Pro Cycling Team Presented by Sierra Nevada Brewing) will wear the Edward Jones Sprint Leader jersey for Friday’s stage.  Frischkorn remains the Drury Inn Most Aggressive Rider for the second straight day and Jeff Louder (HealthNet/Maxxis) retains his place as Michelob Ultra King of the Mountain Leader. Stephen Cozza (Slipstream/Chipotle) takes over as the Build-A-Bear Best Young Rider.

Stage Four, the longest of the Tour of Missouri, starts at 10:30 a.m. in Lebanon, MO.  The race will cover 133.4 miles/ 214.6 km and features a challenging series of rolling hills, a Michelob Ultra KOM climb, and Edward Jones Sprint Lines in Jefferson City, Missouri's state capital, and the town of Holts Summit before ending in Columbia.  Riders are expected to complete the course between 3:17 p.m. to 4:36 p.m.
 
For more information about the Tour of Missouri, see http://www.tourofmissouri.com

Quotes from 2007 Tour of Missouri Stage Three
 
Nathan O’Neill, Team Health Net Powered by Chipotle
 
About the course…
“I had a good look at the course, and immediately I said to myself this is a good one for me. I prepared well for it, and I warmed up good this morning… I knew right from the beginning it was going to be a good day.”
 
“It was hard.  There was nowhere to soft-pedal, nowhere to recover.   It’s the sort of course that if you are good, you know it straight away, and if your legs are good, you find your rhythm right away.  And if you’re struggling, you’re going to struggle.  You can’t hide on a course like that.”
 
About MODOT (Missouri Dept. of Transportation) and the 73-strong vehicle convoy on Highway 65:
That was impressive.  It was the perfect freeway barricade.  I don’t know what it took to organize that, but it was great.  Especially for traffic at high speed, barricades just don’t cut it.  State control need to be commended for the job they’ve done so far this week.  It’s been pretty phenomenal.  I can’t really see any glitches, it’s been second to none. 
 
Levi Leipheimer, Team Discovery Channel
 
About the course…
“It was definitely a hard course.  The thing about today was you really had to know when to push and when not to push.  There were a lot of sections--I don’t know if you can call them climbs and they were too big to call them rollers--but you had to almost go over your limit on the rollers, and then you had to recover.  So in that sense it was technical because you really had to know when to push and when to let off the gas.”
 
About this season…
 “As long as my teammate wins, it’s fine; you can’t win everything.  My goal this year was California, a podium at the Tour and win a stage at the Tour, and I met those objectives.  Everything else is a bonus. The team is very strong.  The Tour of Missouri is the last race for Discovery Channel, and we wanted to come here and go out on the top, so this is the perfect way to end it.”
 
About MODOT and the 73-strong convoy of MODOT vehicles lining Highway 65:
“I’ve never seen anything like that, but it felt like they were taking care of us and really protecting us.”
 
George Hincapie, Team Discovery Channel:
 
“The legs weren’t great, I definitely felt my effort yesterday.  Coming into the circuits yesterday was basically me against 10 guys, I had to control every attack.  So I think I paid a little bit for it. But it was good, I was better than everybody in the break, and that’s all I had to do today.”
 
About the Tour of Missouri:
“Fans have been amazing, a lot more than we expected.  We rolled into Kansas City for the start, and we were very impressed with the amount of people.”
 
Matti Helminen, Team DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed (3-time Swedish National Time Trial Champion)
 
About the course…
“It was one of the hardest courses I’ve ever done in a time trial.”