Injured Levi Leipheimer to miss race

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While Santa Rosa’s Levi Leipheimer was winning the Amgen Tour of California last week, he was doing most of the 750-mile race with a broken sacrum that he’d suffered in a crash during Stage 3 when his wheels got tangled with his Astana teammate Lance Armstrong. Leipheimer had complained of pain after the crash.

On the day of the crash Leipheimer had taken the blame. ‘I looked down for one second,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t fully concentrating, it was windy and it’s hard to ride in a straight line. Everyone was going from left to right and the next thing I know I touched a wheel and went down on my [butt]. I can certainly feel it on my butt. It’s like when you stub your toe. Well, maybe a little bigger than that.’

According to a statement from Astana, Leipheimer will miss his next scheduled race, Paris-Nice.

-- Diane Pucin