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Remember that little 10-second penalty?

The official's call that cost Leipheimer second place

Published: Jul. 28, 2007

Levi Leipheimer uncorked the time trial of his life to win Saturday’s time trial shootout in Angouleme, but a controversial 10-second penalty in stage 12 will likely cost him second place on the Tour de France podium.

With one day left to race in the 2007 Tour, Leipheimer pulled within eight seconds of Cadel Evans and the runner-up spot on the Tour podium. Contador leads Evans by 23 seconds with Leipheimer slotted into third another eight seconds adrift.

Without the controversial penalty, Leipheimer would instead be parked in second at 21 seconds behind his Discovery Channel teammate.

“If it was for the win, it would have been more heart-breaking,” Leipheimer said of the penalty. “We have two stage wins, the yellow jersey, the white jersey and two guys on the podium. I think we can be happy with this Tour.”

On stage 8, Leipheimer was fined 50 CHF and penalized 5 points and 10 seconds for the bidon pull and fined an addition 50 CHF for illegal mechanical assistance.

The points and the fines are hardly important, but the time penalty came back to bite him.

Leipheimer was slapped with the time penalty for receiving a bidon pull from the Discovery Channel team car after switching bikes at the base of the treacherous Roselend descent midway through the alpine climbing stage to Tignes.

“My chain came off on the descent off the Roselend and got wrapped in the derailleur and I couldn’t pedal for the last 5km of the descent,” Leipheimer said on the Tour’s first rest day. “The car was too far behind for it to come up. When I got to the bottom, I switched to the spare bike, but I even had to change that.”

It’s common for riders to slingshot off team cars while chasing back from mechanical problems, fetching water bottles or going down in crashes.

This year, UCI officials cracked down on what’s otherwise a common practice at the rear of the frenetic pace of the peloton during the race.

Discovery Channel boss Johan Bruyneel approached the UCI commissaire about the decision, but no changes were made.

“Johan asked about it. I don’t know if it was a formal appeal. The commissaire said he stood behind his decision,” Leipheimer said. “That’s the way race goes sometimes.”

One UCI commissaire confirmed to VeloNews this week that racing rules were being more strictly applied during this year’s Tour.

That stricter enforcement of the rules cost Leipheimer a second place, but at least it didn’t cost him the podium – or even worse - the final victory.