Tour de Beijing: Utahns Zabriskie, Leipheimer on Olympic team

Recovering from a broken vertebra, David Zabriskie was not terribly surprised to find out he would not represent his cycling team at the Tour de France.

The emotions of that development, however, didn't really hit him until he stopped for lunch one day about two weeks ago.

"I went into Chipotle for a burrito," he said, referring to one of the title sponsors to his Garmin-Chipotle squad, "when I realized how much I missed being with my team. It made me realize they'd be racing without me."

The injury, suffered when Zabriskie was caught behind several other crashing cyclists at the Giro d'Italia about seven weeks ago, has kept the three-time national time trial champion out of races since. What it hasn't done, though, is keep him from reaching one of his cycling goals.

Last week, Zabriskie — along with former Salt Lake resident and Rowland Hall-St. Mark's graduate Levi Leipheimer — was officially named to the U.S. Olympic cycling team.

"It's the first time I've ever opened a bottle of champagne for myself," Zabriskie said. "It's pretty cool. It's something I had as a goal for the last couple of years, so to be on the Olympic team, that's great."

Not participating in the Tour de France is a bitter pill to swallow, the 29-year-old Zabriskie said. He was a key member of a new American cycling team — one that wanted to put a distinct stamp on a sport that has endured years of scandals dealing with drugs, steroids and cheating of various varieties.

Leipheimer, likewise, is not racing in the Tour de France this year. His new team, Astana, was excluded from the biggest race in the world because of past doping scandals — scandals that involved riders and directors no longer associated with the team.

And though both cyclists are still training hard, they will have relatively fresh legs compared to the Olympians who will have three weeks of hard riding in their recent past when the Olympics start. Those fresh legs, plus the exclusion from the Tour de France, may turn the Utah cyclists into favorites when the events are held.

To keep his competitive juices flowing, Leipheimer made a trip to Oregon last week for the Cascade Cycling Classic. The six-stage race showed the former Salt Lake resident — who was in the state training before leaving for Oregon — is in top form.

Leipheimer blazed a trail to a time-trial victory, taking the yellow jersey and never looking back. He ended the race atop the podium with Salt Lake pro Jeff Louder finishing second.