The third edition of the Tour of California drew to a close yesterday. Under less than standard California weather conditions, George Hincapie pulled in a stage win for Team High Road, while Levi Leipheimer of Astana stayed close enough to take the General Classification.

The attacks began at the very start of the race with Doug Ollerenshaw of Rock Racking making an attack. There were the expected counter attacks and while Ollerenshaw did not make the eventual break, teammate Michael Creed did. Also in there were George Hincapie (High Road), Jason McCartney (Team CSC), Yannick Talabardon (Credit Agricole), Oliver Zaugg (Gerolsteiner), Dimitri Champion (Bouygues Telecom), Danny Pate (Slipstream Chipotle), Taylor Tolleson (BMC), Rory Sutherland (Health Net Maxxis) and Tom Zirbel (Bissell).

It wasn’t long before the gap neared 3 minutes when Victor Hugo Pena (Rock Racing), Robert Gesink (Rabobank), Thomas Peterson and Dave Zabriskie (Slipstream-Chipotle) tried to bridge to the break. Astana quickly stepped on the gas and eliminated the danger.

Creed kept on the gas in the break and took the maximum KOM points. There was fog on the backside of the climb, so the riders had to pick and feel their way down the mountain. Freddie Rodriquez (Rock Racing) crashed in one of the two tunnels on the descent.

The rain increased as the riders went down the mountain. As the race began to enter the neighborhoods of Pasadena, the break still had a 2 minute lead. In the final circuits, the break itself began to splinter, with McCartney first going out, then a stronger break by Zirbel. Zirbel was able to maintain his gap for most of the four circuits, but the final kilometer saw him passed first by McCartney, then by Sutherland and Hincapie, who went on to win the race.

This is Leipheimer’s second overall win in the ATOC.