Three in a row for Levi

Native son Levi Leipheimer, of Santa Rosa, was the big winner Sunday after nailing down his third straight Tour of California victory in front of more than 100,000 fans packed into downtown Escondido.

But there were other winners, too. Lance Armstrong, making his return to competitive cycling in the United States, said other winners were "the Navy SEALS and Native-American community" out for the race up the 5,314-foot climb over Mt. Palomar. They were fans Armstrong communicated with through Twitter, offering his thanks after finishing seventh overall, 1:46 behind Astana teammate Leipheimer.

"Better than I could have imagined," his longtime coach and Astana team general director, Johan Bruyneel, said of Armstrong's comeback after three years away from the sport. "We're farther along than we've ever been on Feb. 22."
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AP photo
Levi Leipheimer raises three fingers after winning the Tour of California for the third time.

But Armstrong said he didn't know if that will be enough to get back to the head of the pack at the classic races ahead -- the Giro d'Italia in May and the Tour de France in July. If he doesn't get his weight down to 163 pounds while getting his strength up, then he may stay as a "domestique" riding in support of Leipheimer.

"I'm tired," Armstrong said after nine days of racing. His next two big races are three weeks each from start to finish. "I'm glad we're not racing tomorrow."

Team Columbia-Highroad owner/general manager Bob Stapleton, the UCR grad from Riverside, said Sunday only strengthened his claim that "this is already the third-biggest race in the world" with the Giro and the Tour. "We had the athletes this year, and California is a great stage."

The Tour drew more than two million attendees from Sacramento to Sunday's first-ever stage in San Diego County.

"Amazing" and "awesome," Armstrong called them. "Europeanesque."

Although maybe not European enough for David Zabriskie, who finished second overall.

"They were having a good time," he said of the colorfully costumed summit fans atop snowy Mt. Palomar who ran with the cyclists. "I wasn't sure they knew what they were doing so I had to be careful to avoid them."

The challenge for Stapleton's team Sunday was "a desperate strategy," he admitted, "to try to isolate Levi and wear out Astana."

Not so easy, however, "since Levi's the fittest guy here," Stapleton said.

But Stapleton's San Luis Obispo-based team had some success. Australian Michael Rogers finished third overall, and British sprinter Mark Cavendish won two stages.

Leipheimer, meanwhile, finished ninth in the final stage and had an overall time of 31 hours, 28 minutes, 21 seconds. His winning margin was 36 seconds over Zabriskie. He came into Sunday's eighth stage with the same margin over Zabriskie.

"It's the sweetest victory of the three," Leipheimer said. "It's hard to describe. I mean, to keep a streak going like that, it just becomes so difficult. I told Lance this week that I don't know how the (heck) he won seven times in the Tour de France. I've got a lot of respect for that because the pressure builds, the expectations are higher and you can't get second place because that's losing."

Temecula's Floyd Landis, on his return from a two-year ban and riding for the Temecula-sponsored Team OUCH, moved up to 23rd overall Sunday, 10:26 behind. He won the inaugural Tour of California in 2006.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.