Salt Laker Zabriskie is national champ

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Salt Lake City's David Zabriskie left the Tour de France in July with an injured knee and a bag full of questions.

Saturday, he answered most of those by covering the 18.7-mile course at the U.S Pro Cycling Championships in 39 minutes, 34 seconds.

That time was good enough to earn him his second straight national championship and keep him in the Stars and Stripes jersey he has worn in time trial events around the world for the past year.

Zabriskie, racing now for Team CSC but moving to Team Slipstream-Chipotle next year, finished the course with a one-second margin of victory over his soon-to-be Slipstream teammate Danny Pate.

Part-time Salt Lake resident Saul Raisin, competing in his first big race since falling into a coma after a crash during a 2006 race, finished 33rd, more than four minutes off Zabriskie's pace.

Levi Leipheimer, a former Salt Lake resident and third-place finisher in July's Tour de France, captured the road race title on Sunday afternoon after breaking away from the field with about 30 kilometers to go and rode to a dominating victory over Discovery Channel teammate George Hincapie.

Salt Lake's Burke Swindlehurst (Toyota-United) and Jeff Louder (HealthNet/Maxxis) finished 10th and 11th, respectively, a little more than two minutes off Leipheimer's time.