Pinos Altos (New Mexico), May 3: Levi Leipheimer won the Tour of the Gila for the second straight year on Sunday as teammate Lance Armstrong finished 17th.
Leipheimer held a 59-second lead heading into the final 105.7-mile stage that began in Silver City and ended in Pinos Altos.
He finished the stage in 10th place with the same time as Tom Danielson, who was the overall runner-up.
While Leipheimer and seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong were using the five-day race in the New Mexico mountains as preparation for the upcoming Tour of California and the Tour de France, Leipheimer was delighted to win again. “I came here from sea level, and for me to perform as good as I did shows me that I’m in great shape,” he said.
“Honestly, I felt fine the whole week, and I was never in trouble. So I’m pretty happy. ... I dont think it could have gone any better for us.”
Armstrong fell off the pace in the final five miles and finished 23rd in the final stage after he and teammate Jason McCartney worked to help Leipheimer keep his lead.
“The most difficult part of today was controlling the race with just three riders,” Armstrong’s coach and director of Team Radio-shack Johan Bruyneel said.
“We also knew that there were a lot of domestic teams that were going really fast, and we lost Jason pretty early because he had to do all the work in the beginning. After that it was up to Levi and Lance.”