(This article was originally published Feb. 23, 2008 in Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.)
SOLVANG, Calif. — A pro cyclist who can't excel riding alone has little chance to win a stage race. No one knows the simple but hard to execute formula better than Levi Leipheimer.
Leipheimer has ridden to stunning individual time trial victories, like the 19th stage of last year's Tour de France. And he's had horrific days in the race against the clock, like he did in the stage 7 of the 2006 Tour de France when his lost more than five minutes in a time trial to Rennes and finished 96th.
As such, the Santa Rosa rider has spent considerable time in wind-tunnel testing and adjusting his riding position.
On Friday in the fifth stage of the Amgen Tour of California, Leipheimer's unique time trial pedigree was at its best. He rode to a dominating victory and extended his race lead to 49 seconds with only two race stages left.
Leipheimer (Astana), the Santa Rosa rider who was last of 104 riders on the course, completed the windy 15-mile route in 30 minutes and 47 seconds at an average speed of 29.202 mph.
David Millar (Slipstream), the national time trial and road champion of Great Britain, finished second in 31:16, with teammate Christian Vandevelde of Lemont, Ill., third in 31:32.
Millar, who began the day in fourth place trailing Leipheimer by 20 seconds, moved into second place. Vandevelde is third overall, trailing by 1:08.
Still, Leipheimer wasn't confident. He held a 13-second lead over reigning and two-time world time trial tidiest Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland entering the stage. Cancellara won the race's prologue time trial and rode surprisingly well in the mountain climbs of earlier stages.
"I was nervous; I had my doubts," said Leipheimer, who's held the race lead since Wednesday when he finished second in the third stage to San Jose.
"But everytime I had my doubts, I just told myself I'm going to go out and do my best. It was going to be ugly, but I'm going to fight because we came here with something to prove. When I got close to the end I gave it everything and I was getting a little cross-eyed."
Leipheimer also won the same time trial last year by 18 seconds over Jens Voigt (CSC) of Germany with a slightly more than a minute faster time.
"The sign of a good time-trialer is that you don't remember a lot when you're done," said Leipheimer. "It's a blur and I told myself to go to that place where I can hurt the most."
"(Team director) Eki (Viatcheslav Ekimov) was great, he knows exactly what is going through my mind and what it takes to motivate me. He said 'You are so close -- Millar's flying with the best split time.' He told me I was third best split time. With every passing kilometer I was yelling at myself but not to crash on the last corner because I was a little cross-eyed."
Cancellara finished fifth in the time trial and is now fourth overall, trailing Leipheimer by 1:18.
"I did a very good stage to San Jose and I think I paid the price today," said Cancellara. "It was evident today that Levi is a better rider now. We will have to see what's possible in the next two stages. They are not flat and Levi is climbing well. So we will have to see how it goes."
The event, which began last Sunday in Palo Alto with 132 riders, is now down to 102. Two riders finished outside the time limit Friday and another was not present at the start of the stage.
Although Leipheimer improved his lead, the remaining two stages both have climbs, with the final stage including the race's highest elevation at nearly 5,000 feet.