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Astana Cycling Team Wins Team Classification in Tour de Georgia
By Thomas Valentinsen
Apr 28, 2008 - 4:23:24 AM
Astana Cycling Team, under the guidance of team directors Viatcheslav Ekimov and Alexandr Shefer, won the team classification in the Tour de Georgia (USA, April 21st to 27th). At the finish of the final stage Team Astana had an advantage of 3:30 to Team CSC.
Levi Leipheimer finished 3rd in the GC, 14 seconds behind former U23 world champion Kanstantin Sivtsov (Team High Road) and 10 seconds behind Trent Lowe (Team Slipstream/Chipotle). With Toni Colom finishing 4th and Chechu Rubiera finishing 11th, the Kazakh sponsored team had another solid performance.
Toni Colom attacked in the last 3K of the last stage on Sunday, but was caught by the peloton with 500 meters to go. He has finished all his four 2008 stage races in the top ten. The last stage in Atlanta, won by Greg Henderson (Team High Road) did not change anything in the GC.
American champion Levi Leipheimer showed again that he is one of the best climbers in the world. He admitted as well that two riders were better than him in the queen stage to Brasstown Bald on Saturday. “Everybody rode a really great bike race, I’ve got to say. I felt strong but I think Trent and especially Sivtsov felt really strong. That’s just bike racing. I gauged my effort and was able to get rid of everybody except those two. I waited until the last kilometer, and that last kilometer is legendary in cycling. I kept telling myself that was where it was going to happen and it did. We all did our best and the strongest man won. I got beat straight up.”
The next races for Levi Leipheimer will be the Vuelta a Catalunya (May 19-25) and the Dauphiné Libéré (June 8-15).
