By Anthony Tan Triumphing on the first mountain stage, defending champion Levi Leipheimer has put...
Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) (Image credit: AFP)
Defending champ back in business; tough-as-nails Voigt takes race lead
By Anthony Tan
Triumphing on the first mountain stage, defending champion Levi Leipheimer has put himself in contention to earn back-to-back victories in the Deutschland Tour. With three kilometres to go, the 32 year-old American attacked his two breakaway companions and quickly distanced himself, flying towards the finish in Seefeld and winning by a margin of two seconds over Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) and Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre-Fondital).
"I believe so, I think it was the right thing to do," replied Leipheimer to ARD television on his attack just before the rain-soaked descent to the finish. "You could see how cold and wet it is here, and we were supposed to go to two-thousand metres... it was very dangerous, and it was definitely the right thing to do - it made a great race."
Finishing on the same time was Jens Voigt (Team CSC) and Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Prodir), the former hanging tough on the climb to Mösern, grappling back onto the chase group with three kilometres to go, and finding himself in the leader's yellow jersey by the day's end.
The late change to today's parcours as a result of inclement weather appeared to have little effect on the race outcome, and tomorrow, the peloton face another difficult mountain stage from Seefeld to Sankt Anton, with the finish 1,762 metres above sea level in St. Christoph am Alberg.
