LEVI LEIPHEIMER RETAINS LEADER JERSEY

I got this today in an email update from the race:

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Olympic and World Champion Paolo Bettini (ITA), riding for Quick Step-Innergetic, made cycling history when he edged out T-Mobile Team's Gerald Ciolek (GER) in a dramatic photo finish to win Stage 4 of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California. For the first time ever, a reigning Olympic and World Champion won a race held on U.S. soil.

"Day by day, I am discovering California on this course and it is beautiful," said Bettini. "Here in California the courses are good for me. They are difficult, but not too difficult... The fans here are incredible, just incredible."

Levi Leipheimer of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team finished the longest stage of the eight-day race, at 132.6 miles (213.4km), in 36th place, which was enough for the Santa Rosa, Calif., resident to retain the overall leader jersey. "Today was the postcard of the Amgen Tour of California. Riding down Highway 1 through Big Sur... pretty amazing, very beautiful," said Leipheimer following the stage.

Under clear skies and roaring crowds who packed the finish in downtown San Luis Obispo, Bettini outsprinted T-Mobile's Gerald Ciolek (GER) and Team CSC's Juan Jose "J.J." Haedo (ARG), who finished second and third respectively, to take his first stage win in America. The ride from Seaside to San Luis Obispo was punctuated by two brief rain showers and some of the most striking scenery yet as the cyclists rode hard down the Highway 1 coastline. The average speed was 25.8 mph (41.5 kph), with the leaders completing the course in 5:05:47. Leipheimer, the overall leader since the Prologue in San Francisco, was upbeat about keeping the Amgen Leader Jersey until the finish in Long Beach. "I'm pretty confident. I feel good. I feel like I'm the best rider in the race," said Leipheimer at a post-race press conference.