Besides all the racing at the Tour of California, there’s the con jobs, possum playing and sand bagging. It appears that the Spanish lady who broke Levi Leipheimer’s leg is just a pawn in an incredible game of high stakes California poker. It’s a race, it’s Greek drama.
While Levi Leipheimer was close to tears and clinical depression at the pre-race press conference and convinced both the cyclical Twisted Spoke and wise Boulder Report expert Joe Lindsey that he was down to one leg, others remained suspicious. Maybe we just got sucked in by Leipheimer’s method acting 101 sad clown act. Who knew he had the spare time to learn how to make his voice quiver?
Meanwhile hardened race vet, ex-teammate and Tour of Cali reigning champ Chris Horner said little Levi was “playing possum.” Top ranked contender BMC Racing’s Tejay Van Garderen refused to count out the three time winner. Nobody among the list of rivals was prepared to write off the rodent.
Now Leipheimer’s own teammate Peter Velits has added fire to the Horner possum claim by saying he isn’t the new plan A at Omega Pharma Quickstep. “I still believe that Levi can get into shape during the first stages, and the most important stages are going to be time trial and Mt. Baldy.,” said Velits. “By that time I hope he’s going to be alright and I’m going to help him. If he’s not alright then of course I’ll try my best to get a result, but I believe he’s going to be good.”
Possum crawls onto bike with damaged leg and wins Tour of California, gaining revenge on hated Horner for stealing 2011 Tour of California from him. A fantastic story but I don’t think we’ll be writing that block buster movie script.
Who to believe? The furry creature with the recently broken leg or the paranoid vet trying to stay on top? Twisted Spoke says Leipheimer will have to work hard to make the top ten and deserves a ton of credit for even clipping in.
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