Levi Leipheimer on new team, Discovery rumors

VeloNews | Q&A with Levi Leipheimer: Ready for more at Gerolsteiner

After last year's Tour, rumors all over the place had Levi Leipheimer jumping from Rabobank over to Discovery, becoming a co-leader of the team during one or more of the ProTour grand tours this year.

Instead, he wound up in a similar role at Gerolsteiner, where he and Georg Totschnig will be the team's primary marked men.

VN: You've been twice top-10 in the Tour, does that carry more weight than third at the Vuelta?

LL: No, because I got to stand on the podium, that's something. When you talk about the physical aspects, if you can put apples to apples, maybe eighth place is a bigger achievement. But I still think standing on the podium is a good thing, it outweighs an eighth place.

Part two of the interview has been posted. Leipheimer discusses his jour sans at Plateau de Beille in last year's Tour, and why he thinks he has an honest shot at a Top 5 finish this year.