A New American Leader

Today's stage in the Tour of California ended with a win for a great American rider, who then also took the overall lead due to time bonuses.

George Hincapie, the only man to ride alongside Lance Armstrong to every one of Lance's seven victories, is the leader of the Discovery Team at this race and took victory today in San Jose. He took the lead from Team Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer. Leipheimer was in a breakaway group after the last particularly hard climb, but the Discovery Team kept their heads together, stayed in a group and slowly and surely made their way back up to - and past - the leaders.

Hincapie only has a four-second lead over Leipheimer in the overall now, so he'll have to work hard to keep it. Conversely, the others in the top five (separated by only 13 seconds) will have to work hard to take it away.