Viva Viviani! Liquigas scores a field sprint win in Steamboat Springs

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (VN) — Liquigas-Cannondale’s 22-year-old Italian speedster Elia Viviani won Friday’s stage 4 of the 2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge, outsprinting a large field in this cowboy ski town that went bike crazy for the occasion.

RadioShack’s Levi Leipheimer finished safely in the lead pack to retain the leader’s jersey to earned with his win of Thursday’s Vail time trial.

A five-man break was off the front for much of the day, the best-placed member of which was Gobernacion’s Janier Acevedo, who started the day 2:37 behind Leipheimer on the GC.

The RadioShack men kept the break’s lead under three minutes much of the day before the sprinter’s teams took over the chase in the final 30 kilometers, finally catching the last remnants of the break with less than five miles to go.
Quick results
Stage

• 1. Elia VIVIANI, Liquigas-Cannondale, in 2:58:14
• 2. Michael MORKOV, Saxo Bank Sungard, at s.t.
• 3. Kenny Robert VAN HUMMEL, Skil-Shimano, at s.t.
• 4. Robert FÖRSTER, Unitedhealthcare Presented By Maxxis, at s.t.
• 5. Dennis VAN WINDEN, Rabobank Cycling Team, at s.t.

GC

• 1. Levi Leipheimer, Team RadioShack, in 13:28:43
• 2. Christian Vande Velde, Team Garmin-Cervelo, at 00:11
• 3. Tejay Van Garderen, HTC-Highroad, at 00:17
• 4. Tom DANIELSON, Team Garmin-Cervelo, at 00:21
• 5. George Hincapie, BMC Racing Team, at 00:53

Results