Leipheimer holds overall lead in Tour of California

Updated report

CLOVIS — Neither rain nor snow can stop the Tour of California. But it’s not always weather that ends riders’ rides.

Following the departure of three riders via crashes in the rain-soaked and slick third stage, three more cyclists, including Scott Nydam of Sebastopol, abandoned the race with injuries sustained in crashes in the fourth stage Wednesday. But the crashes weren’t weather related.

Levi Leipheimer (Astana) of Santa Rosa, vying for his third straight title, finished 20th in the main field in the 115.4-mile Merced to Clovis road race and kept his 24-second overall margin over Australian Michael Rogers (Columbia Highroad). David Zabriskie (Garmin-Slipstream) remains third, trailing by 28 seconds.

Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) of Great Britain, generally considered the sport’s best sprinter, claimed a massive sprint stage victory by a half bike-length in 4 hours, 42 minutes and 38 seconds.

Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner riding in his North American debut after a 3½-year retirement, also finished in the main field. Armstrong, riding a support role for Leipheimer, remains fourth overall, trailing by 30 seconds.

But is was the departure of Nydam, Kim Kirchen (Columbia Highroad) of Luxembourg and Oscar Freire (Rabobank), that hampered a stage backdropped by sun and glistening snow in the lower levels of the Sierra Nevada.

Race officials plowed and applied sand to segments of the course previously covered ankle-deep snow. With the sun also drying the course, the riders had no complaints. But with the warmer conditions, Kirchen momentarily lost his concentration while removing his race jacket. It caught on the bike’s spokes, resulting in a crash that also brought down Freire and other riders.

Kirchen (fractured clavicle and scapula) and Freire (broken ribs), are former world titlists and will likely miss key spring races in Europe.

Nydam left the race in a solo crash later in the stage and also suffered a fractured clavicle. The rider from the Santa Rosa-based BMC team, claimed best climber’s honors in last year’s Tour of California. He was 56th overall, nearly 18 minutes behind Leipheimer, entering the fourth stage this year.

“It wasn’t particularly dangerous today,” said Leipheimer. “The accidents were unnecessary; Kirchen’s crash was silly. It shouldn’t have happened. But bad luck happens. Let’s hope it’s over now.”

Leipheimer, who assumed the race lead after a second-place finish in Stage 2, avoided crashing and rode while surrounded by teammates.

“The first 1½ hours were blazing,” he said. “Even Lance took some monster pulls and brought back four of five guys on his own. It’s great to have such a strong team.”

Said Armstrong: “It was a hard race, because in the beginning guys were aggressive and wanted to get away to get a break going. They made our lives tough on the first couple of climbs and so we had to ride quite a bit. Not an easy day — fast coming home, but all-in-all pretty tough.”

Three riders, including Tyler Hamilton, the current U.S. road titlist, built as much as much as a six-minute margin after riding together for several hours. The trio was caught with less than a mile left in the stage.

The nine-day event continues today with the 134.3-mile Visalia-to-Paso Robles road race, the longest stage of the race. The fourth-year event concludes Sunday in Escondido.

Like the sprint, mountain and best young rider competitions, the team competition in stage racing is often overlooked. It’s determined by the combined top-three riders for each team. Teams get stage honors, but it’s the overall team title that matters most.

Astana is generally considered the strongest in the field, and it has proven the designation through four stages. With five riders among the top eight in the overall standings, Astana has a 3 minute, 58-second margin over Garmin Slipstream. Team Saxo Bank is third in the team division, trailing Astana by 5:41. The new Australian-financed team, FlyV Australia is last in the team competition, trailing by 1 hour, 5 minutes and 4 seconds.

Philippe Maertens, chief press officer for Astana, played taped comments by Armstrong from a brief interview after the stage done by Paul Sherwen, the cyclist broadcaster on Versus.

When asked about the crashes in the race, Armstrong replied: “Cycling is a dangerous sport. You remember how dangerous from 1995. We were teammates.”

Not exactly. Sherwen was the public relations representative for Motorola, Armstrong’s team, in 1995. It was the year Fabio Casartelli, also riding for Motorola, died after crashing on a mountain descent during the 15th stage of the Tour de France.

For the second straight day, there was an expansive fine list, levied by race officials. Four riders received fines of 50 and 200 Swiss francs for first and second offenses of “sheltering behind a vehicle for some time.”

Other fines included “non-regulation breakdown or medical assistance” and “non-regulation of refreshments.”