PINOS ALTOS, New Mexico, May 2, 2010 (AFP) – Levi Leipheimer won the Tour of the Gila for the second straight year on Sunday as teammate Lance Armstrong finished 17th.

Leipheimer held a 59-second lead heading into the final 105.7-mile stagethat began in Silver City and ended in Pinos Altos.

He finished the stage in 10th place with the same time as Tom Danielson, who was the overall runner-up.

While Leipheimer and seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong were using the five-day race in the New Mexico mountains as preparation for the upcoming

Tour of California and the Tour de France, Leipheimer was delighted to win again.

“I felt great today, but I have to thank my teammates again,” commented Leipheimer. “Jason did a great job in the beginning of this hard stage by neutralizing the attacks of Dave Zabriskies’s team. Afterwards Lance was really good on the last climb. Nobody was able to attack. He was pulling the last 15 miles. With 5 miles to go, I took over to make sure the time gap with Darren Lill wasn’t that close.”

Levi Leipheimer conquered the red leader’s jersey after the first stage on Wednesday. He showed he is in top form for racing in California. “It was a great week for me, coming to altitude straight from sea level,” continued Leipheimer. “I was never in any trouble and I don’t think it could have gone any better. It was a great week of preparation for the Tour of California.”

“I came here from sea level, and for me to perform as good as I did shows me that I’m in great shape,” he said. “Honestly, I felt fine the whole week, and I was never in trouble. So I’m pretty happy. … I don’t think it could have gone any better for us.”

Armstrong fell off the pace in the final five miles and finished 23rd in
the final stage after he and teammate Jason McCartney worked to help
Leipheimer keep his lead.

“The most difficult part of today was controlling the race with just three riders,” Armstrong’s coach and director of Team Radioshack Johan Bruyneel said. “We also knew that there were a lot of domestic teams that were going to be going really fast, and we lost Jason pretty early because he had to do all the work in the beginning. After that it was up to Levi and Lance.”

Final Overall Classification:
1 Levi Leipheimer; 2 Tom Danielson 00.59; 3 Dave Zabriskie 01.09; 4 Phil Zajicek 01.10; 5 Luis Amaran 02.11; 6 Andrew Talansky 02.36; 7 Darren Lill 02.44; 8 Rory Sutherland 03.20; 9Corey Collier 03.31; 10 Burke Swindlehurst 3.43