Leipheimer time trials to stage victory

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Leipheimer hinted after yesterday's stage that he had GC leader Alberto Contador's number of late when it came to time trialing, and the Omega Pharma-Quick Step American delivered the goods with gusto today. Leipheimer not only won the 19.5km individual time trial in the city of San Luis, with a scintillating time of 23:17.33, but brought the leader's jersey back into his squad's camp after he put more than one minute into overnight leader Contador. The Spaniard's sixth place finish dropped him to fourth overall.

Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) posted the second fastest time and momentarily held the hot seat with a 23:50.01 effort, while Stefan Schumacher continued his run of good form with a third-place finish, 38 seconds behind Leipheimer.

"I really, really wanted to win today," said Leipheimer. "I was pretty confident that I was going to win because I had splits on [teammate] Bert Grabsch and I was quite a ways ahead of him and he's an ex-world champion."

Leipheimer, making his debut for Omega Pharma-Quick Step at the Tour de San Luis, was quick to pay homage to his team. "It's a new team starting off a new year. I've been really happy since I've come here. I just wanted to show the team, to show [team manager] Patrick [Lefevre], to show the sponsors that I'm very grateful for them allowing me to be part of it.

"I'm hoping I can lead the way for the younger guys on the team, to show them motivation and show them that it takes a lot of hard work and you can have success."

The Tour de San Luis peloton faced the hottest day of the race thus far, and as in each previous outing the wind was also a factor on the out-and-back course. Riders tackled a slight rise to the turn around point, followed by a gradual descent and then capped off with another slight rise in the final kilometre as the riders passed the start house going the opposite direction to finish further down Av Illia.

"It was more windy this morning when we pre-rode the course, but it was definitely windy, especially out on the highway," said Leipheimer. "It was tailwind to get out there [to the turn-around] and headwind on the way back which made it hard. The last three kilometres were really tough.

"It was hot, too. I was sweating and that last corner I was totally cross-eyed, sweat dripping in my eyes, but I had to sprint that last kilometre uphill to the finish."

A short jaunt to work today

The 165 riders starting the fourth stage of the Tour de San Luis didn't have far to travel to take their position in the start house as the time trial began only a few hundred metres from all the team hotels. There was plenty of time to ease into the day, preview the course and prepare for the afternoon effort with the first rider Jason McCartney (UnitedHealthcare) rolling down the ramp at 3:13pm.

There was an interesting mix of road bikes and full-on time trial bikes in use as some of the European teams opted not to bring time trial machines for everyone on the flight to Argentina.

McCartney's teammate Ben Day would be the first to crack the 24 minute barrier as the 59th rider on the course clocked a 23:59.80.

Day occupied the hot seat for approximately 40 minutes until Matias Medici (Argentina) finished 23 seconds faster.

Slipping under the 23 minute barrier would be far more elusive, however, as the riders occupying the top of the general classification left the start house. Leipheimer's teammate Sylvain Chavanel would come close, finishing in 23:12.59, but Italian Vincenzo Nibali was the first to go sub-23 with a 22:56.30, the best time of the day thus far.

Only four riders remained out on course, and it was Leipheimer, the penultimate rider out of the start house, who was re-setting previous best benchmarks. Drenched in sweat under a searing summer sun, Leipheimer scorched the parcours and finished his ride 23 seconds faster than Nibali.

All eyes were then on Contador, the final rider on course, but the Spaniard was nowhere near the finish as Leipheimer's time came and went with the Saxo Bank rider finishing sixth, 1:01 down.

Some breathing room for Leipheimer

Leipheimer started the day four seconds behind Contador overall, but he now leads general classification by 53 seconds over Schumacher and 55 seconds on Nibali. Tomorrow the peloton faces its second (and final) mountaintop finish, with a 6.4km ascent to Mirador del Sol awaiting the riders at the conclusion of the 160.6km stage starting in La Toma.

The average gradient is 8.75 percent, with sections of 14.5 percent and 15.5 percent in the latter portion of the climb.

Leipheimer has confidence in himself, as well as his team regarding his GC chances. "It looks like a very tough stage but I feel strong. When it comes down to it it's going to be up to me in the last four or five kilometres to go against those three or four riders [near on GC]."

With the Belgian ProTour squad setting an impressive standard in Argentina, Leipheimer hopes to inspire his teammates racing elsewhere. "When you start to win you get on a roll and it's contagious. Hopefully that will spread to the rest of the team on the other continents at the other races. We wish Stybie (Zdenek Stybar) a good race this Sunday [at the cyclo-cross world championships]."