Bicycle racing is sometimes equated to chess on wheels. The players move strategically, hopeful to properly balance risk and reward for their teams.
As the current pro season begins to conclude, the match is still in progress, but who's wearing what colors for what teams and where the allegiances align is all about to change.
For the Discovery Channel team, which includes Levi Leipheimer of Santa Rosa, the beginning of the end to the current configuration will begin Tuesday at the inaugural Tour of Missouri.
The six-day, estimated 562.2-mile event joins the Tour of California (February) and Tour de Georgia (April) as the final major U.S. stage race of the year conducted by Georgia-based Medalist Sports.
Eight members of the 27-rider Discovery Channel team, including reigning Tour de France titlist Alberto Contador of Spain, Yaroslav Popovych of Ukraine and Leipheimer will be among the 15-team, 120-rider field.
Contador, Leipheimer and Popovych finished first, third and eighth in Tour de France last July. But the team also couldn't find a new title sponsor for 2008 and announced it would disband following its most successful year.
Johan Bruyneel, the team's director who has guided eight of the last nine Tour de France winners, said he would retire.
Bruyneel, however, is being courted by the Kazakhstan team, Astana. It abruptly left the Tour de France after Alexander Vinokourov, its top title contender, tested positive after the 13th stage.
Nonetheless, with an eight-rider roster that also includes 11-time Tour de France finisher George Hincapie of Greenville, S.C., and Bruyneel as its director — a squad some have dubbed a "Super Team" — will ostensibly ride together for the last time.
Nine other team members began competing in the Tour of Spain, the final grand tour of the year, Sept. 1. It ends Sept. 23.
"We plan to ride aggressively, but what specific strategy we use, I don't know," Leipheimer said earlier this week. "We'll have to wait and see who's strong and how the early race goes."
Prodir-Saunier Duval of Spain, the world's sixth-ranked ProTour team, will be the only other elite level squad. But 13 other variously classified international and domestic pro teams, including BMC Racing, headquartered in Santa Rosa, will begin the event with an 85-mile afternoon ride around Kansas City.
After three additional road races, interspersed with an individual time, the race will conclude Sunday in St. Louis with a circuit race.
"I think the potential race winner could emerge from a breakaway or in the time trial (stage 3)," said Leipheimer. "I think whomever it is, the teams will be strong enough to protect the lead."
For Leipheimer, the event will mark the end of his most successful season. He won the Tour of California, claimed two stages of the Tour de Georgia and then finished third in the Tour de France after winning the time trial 19th stage. The 31-second gap among the top-three finishers was the closest in race history.
Leipheimer added to his career-best season when he escaped from Hincapie, the defending titlist, in the waning miles and won the U.S. pro road title in Greenville, S.C.
B
ut unlike Hincapie and other key teammates, Leipheimer does not have a contract for next season. He signed with the Discovery Channel team for the second time in his career for the 2007 season. Since turning pro a decade ago, he's also had multiyear tenures the American squad Saturn, Rabobank (Netherlands) and Gerolsteiner (Germany.)
"I don't have a contract for next season, but I can say I am negotiating with at least two European teams," said Leipheimer, 33. "When you finish 31 seconds from winning the Tour de France, I'm pretty motivated to go back and try to win. So that what I'm looking for in a team, and team leader position with the goal to win the Tour de France."
Since his return from the Tour and his fourth overall top-10 finish, demands for Leipheimer's time have substantially increased. On Friday, he filmed a promotional television commercial (scheduled for release in October) for the California Travel & Tourism Commission near in the Marin Headlands.
Leipheimer was scheduled to travel most of today (Sunday) to Missouri and briefly meet with his team. On Monday, a team ride was planned around commitments to sponsors and on various pre-race media commitments.
"It has been more demanding since the Tour," said Leipheimer. "I try to keep my life simply and focus on cycling," said Leipheimer. "But it hasn't happened as much and it likely won't."
Leipheimer's finest pro season has also developed as pro cycling endures tumultuous times.
Drug accusations, fighting between international race organizers and governing bodies, disbanding teams and the still-undetermined case of 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis have all contributed the sponsor and public dissension.
Leipheimer, however, often remains unfazed and far from outspoken about cycling's turbulence.
"It think what it shows is that the sport is trying to do the right thing," he said. "It's a case of half-full or half-empty. I see as cycling go after the problem and that's half-full."
Tour of Missouri
Race Schedule (with route, type of race, miles and local starting and estimated finishing times.)
Tuesday, Sept. 11 – Kansas City to Kansas City, road race, 85 miles; 1-4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 12 – Clinton to Springfield, road race, 125.6 miles, 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
ProTour Teams — Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (USA), Prodir-Saunier Duval (Spain); Domestic Pro Continental Teams — Health Net presented by Maxxis, Navigators Insurance Pro Cycling Team, Slipstream (Chipotle); U.S. Domestic Continental Teams — BMC Racing Team, Colavita-Sutter Home (Cooking Light), Jelly Belly Cycling Team, Kodak Gallery Pro Cycling Team, Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team, USA Cycling National Development Team; International (Pro) Continental Teams — DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed (Germany); Sparkasse (Germany); Symmetrics Cycling (Canada); Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara (Mex).
