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Leipheimer to race Sea Otter
Leipheimer no stranger to Laguna Seca Raceway
Three-time Amgen Tour of California champion Levi Leipheimer will contest the road and circuit races this Friday and Saturday at the Sea Otter Classic, event officials confirmed Thursday night.
Leipheimer lives in Santa Rosa, California, 170 miles from Sea Otter’s home at Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey.
Leipheimer has raced Sea Otter before. In 2006 when riding for Gerolsteiner, the Montana native played a decisive role as a one-man team in the circuit race on the 2.6-mile loop. That year Jelly Belly’s Matty Rice took the win ahead of Health Net’s Karl Menzies.
As with that year, the 2009 Sea Otter circuit race tackles the raceway’s winding course, which includes a sharp wall of a climb on the backside followed by “The Corkscrew,” a bombing, zigzagging descent with a world-class reputation in auto racing circles.
After dominating the criterium Thursday, Team Bissell is the clear favorite for Friday’s rolling road race and Saturday’s 70-mile circuit race.
Friday's road race is a 69-mile affair that heads out of the Laguna Seca area and down Barloy Canyon Road to an 8.5-mile loop on Fort Ord. The finish comes at the top of the long climb back up Barloy Canyon.
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