Well, here we are half-way through the 2nd Amgen Tour of California. Stage 4 wrapped up today and Discovery Channel’s Levi Leipheimer has worn the yellow jersey since day one. Will he carry it all the way into Long Beach on Sunday?

This is how things have played out so far:

Prologue (3.1km)
Stage Winner – Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel)

Virtual unknown Jason Donald (Slipstream) sets the fastest time early in the day (4:50.97) and for most of the day it looks like he might win the prologue. Then, the final rider of the day, Levi Leipheimer rode hard into the wind and threw up a time of 4:49.05 taking the stage win and donning the yellow jersey – a garment the he hasn’t taken off since.

Donald was as shocked as everyone else by his amazing ride, “I look back on the ride, and it’s sort of a blur. I knew that Levi’s time wouldn’t hold up from last year. I knew it was going to be much faster. You all know anything’s possible. I can’t believe I’m second to the leader’s jersey in the biggest race I’ve ever done. There’s those times when it just all comes together. It’s hard to believe that Levi Leipheimer has to worry about me!”

Stage 1 (Sausalito to Santa Rosa – 159.5km)
Stage Winner – Graeme Brown (Rabobank)
1st on GC - Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel)

Frisky Dave Zabriskie crashes about 70 miles into the race suffering a mild concussion and decides to abandon the race at that point.

Another big crash just before the line brings down most of the leaders temporarily and things actually come down to a photo finish at the line. But after some discussion, race officials determine that Rabobank’s Graeme Brown takes the stage and they also decide to give everyone in the crash the same time.

After the stage, Graeme Brown commented on the photo finish, “It was pretty much like a track finish I guess. Circuit racing always is nerves. (The photo finish) was great. I had my teammates looking after me, and I steered clear of problems. My team did a great job. Matt Hayman did exactly what I asked of him, but not only at the finish, they looked after me all day and made sure I didn’t have to ride in the wind, so hats off to the guys, they did a good job.”

Stage 2 (Santa Rosa to Sacramento 345.9km)
Stage Winner - Juan José Haedo (Team CSC)
1st on GC - Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel)

Stage 2 in the Tour of California is a relative easy stage with just two major climbs to challenge the riders. In the end it came down to another breathtaking sprint to the finish.
The victory came after a fairly easy stage for Team CSC, as other teams made sure to neutralize the break-aways.

It was Jens Voigt, Bobby Julich and Stuart O’Grady who made sure Haedo was extremely well positioned for the sprint, which he won by a solid margin of 5-6 meters.

J.J. Haedo was all class after winning the stage, “I’m proud to have secured our team this beautiful victory and I would like to dedicate it to the two riders who crashed in yesterday’s stage; David Zabriskie and Karsten Kroon. It was a tough day for us, following the crashes, but that just makes it even more satisfying to be able to come out on top the day after,”

Stage 3 (Stockton – San José - 152.2 km)
Stage Winner – Jens Voigt (Team CSC)
1st on GC - Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel)

Jens Voigt (Team CSC), Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto) and Leipheimer worked together as part of an earlier break and fought it out down the last few kms.

Jens Voigt was the sole survivor at the end and took home a well deserved stage win.
The Disco boys were cheered on by their former leader Lance Armstrong who spent Stage 3 in the support car behind the boys.

Levi felt the support from Lance, “He understands that today was a real battle. He was 100 percent behind us cheering us on. It really made everyone dig, so it was special.”

“He was saying things like: Come on guys, we can do this. We were discussing tactics. We were all trying to encourage each other. Today was a real bike race. It was a real hard one.”

Stage 4 (Seaside - San Luis Obispo – 215.2km)
Stage Winner – Paolo Bettini (Quickstep)
1st on GC – Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel)

Another incredibly close finish on this stage, this time between Paolo Bettini (Quickstep) and Gerald Ciolek (T-Mobile). It was almost another photo finish at the end with Bettini winning the stage by a tire-width.
Levi finished safely with the bunch to retain his overall lead by three seconds over Jens Voigt and 15 ahead of Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis).

Tomorrow is the individual time trial in Solvang. Levi says he’s feeling good about it, ”I’m very familiar with the Time Trial course. One day (at training camp) we did it three times. I did it on my time trial bike and did some sections pretty hard so I’d know what it feels like to go hard on the course.”

Let’s see if Levi can keep up the pace.