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Tour de France: Levi Leipheimer wins stage 19

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Saturday, July 28, 2007

File:Tour de france 2005 20th stage 06.jpg
Levi Leipheimer at the 2005 Tour de France.
Image: Mishmosh.

Levi Leipheimer of United States has won stage 19 of the 2007 Tour de France in a time of 1h 2' 44".

"I feel this is maybe the best day of my life," said Leipheimer. "It's my first Tour de France stage win and after this I think I deserve to stand on the podium in Paris."

Alberto Contador of Spain keeps the yellow jersey. He is now only 23 seconds ahead of Cadel Evans, who took second place in this 55.5 km individual time trial stage.

Leipheimer is in third overall, only 31 seconds behind Contador and 8 seconds behind Evans. When were the top three this close heading into the final stage? As close as it is, there will probably be no change at the top tomorrow.

"I've done all I could," said Evans. "I lost 55 seconds in the ascent of the Col de Peyresourde - that is where I lost the Tour," he added, recalling stage 15.

"I'm not going to attack Cadel on Sunday. He's a better sprinter anyway." said Leipheimer, who seems to enjoy that his team Discovery Channel Pro Cycling has almost certainly won, not only the yellow jersey for Contador, but also the team classification where they hold a massive advantage. "We've won this Tour and have two stage wins," he said.

Stage 19 result

Rank Rider Team Time
1 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel 1h 02' 44"
2 Cadel Evans Predictor-Lotto +51"
3 Vladimir Karpets Caisse d'Epargne +1' 56"
4 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel +2' 01"
5 Alberto Contador Discovery Channel +2' 18"
6 José Ivan Gutierrez Caisse d'Epargne +2' 27"
7 George Hincapie Discovery Channel +2' 33"
8 Oscar Pereiro Sio Caisse d'Epargne +2' 36"
9 Leif Hoste Predictor-Lotto +2' 48"
10 Mikel Astarloza Euskaltel-Euskadi +2' 50"

General classification after stage 19

Rank Rider Team Time
1 Alberto Contador Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 87h 09' 18"
2 Cadel Evans Predictor-Lotto +23"
3 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team +31"
4 Carlos Sastre Team CSC +7' 08"
5 Haimar Zubeldia Euskaltel-Euskadi +8' 17"
6 Alejandro Valverde Caisse d'Epargne +11' 37"
7 Kim Kirchen T-Mobile Team +12' 18"
8 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team +12' 30"
9 Mikel Astarloza Euskaltel-Euskadi +14' 14"
10 Oscar Pereiro Euskaltel-Euskadi +14' 25"

Sources