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US Cycling Announces 2008 U.S. Olympic Team

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03.07.2008/USA Cycling announced today 21 of its 24 nominees to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team, including all 16 men's athletes across the disciplines of road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking and bicycle motocross (BMX). Additionally, USA Cycling formally announced five automatic women's nominees across the four Olympic disciplines of cycling.

© Sirotti
Levi Leipheimer is nominated for the Beijing Olympics. (© Sirotti)

Of the 21 athletes named on Tuesday, 12 earned automatic nominations under USA Cycling's Olympic selection procedures, while nine additional athletes were nominated to the Olympic Team by a nine-person selection committee according to USA Cycling's Principles of Discretion.

In the discipline of road cycling, a total of five men were nominated to the Olympic Team, while one automatic nomination to the women's squad was announced. Levi Leipheimer(Santa Rosa, Calif.) was the only automatic qualifier as a result of a top-three finish in a UCI Grand Tour between July 1, 2007 and July 1,2008. Leipheimer placed third overall at the 2007 Tour de France when he finished just 31 seconds off the pace of teammate Alberto Contador of Spain and eight seconds back from runner-up Cadel Evans of Australia. An Olympian in 2004, Leipheimer will represent the United States in his second Olympic Games.

Discretionary selections to the men's road squad include George Hincapie (Greenville, S.C.), Jason McCartney (Coralville, Iowa), Christian Vande Velde (Boulder, Colo.) and David Zabriskie (Salt Lake City, Utah). All discretionary nominations were made by USA Cycling based on an athlete's capability to medal or otherwise enhance team performance and create a medal capable environment.

Nominated to his fifth Olympic Team, Hincapie becomes the only five-time Olympic cyclist in U.S. history. McCartney and Vande Velde will each compete in their second Olympic Games. McCartney was a member of the 2004 squad on the road, while Vande Velde was a member of the track squad in 2000. Zabriskie will be making his first Olympic appearance.

Hincapie, Leipheimer, McCartney, Vande Velde and Zabriskie will all compete in the mass start road race.

Since no men's road athletes met the automatic criteria to compete in the individual time trial, Leipheimer and Zabriskie received discretionary nominations to fill the United States' two start positions in the race against the clock. Two of the United States' most decorated time trialists in recent history, Leipheimer and Zabriskie have consistently medaled in world-class races over the course of the last several years. Most notably, Leipheimer won stage 19 of the 2007 Tour de France and stage 5 of the 2008 Tour of California. He also finished on the podium in two other UCI ProTour events - the prologue of the 2007 Dauphine Libere and stage 8 of the 2007 Tour of Germany. A silver medalist in the time trial at the 2006 UCI Road World Championships, Zabriskie also won two Grand Tour time trials - stage 1 of the 2005 Tour de France and stage 8 of the 2005 Giro d' Italia. He has also appeared on the podium in three additional Grand Tour time trials since 2005 and has captured two consecutive USA Cycling Professional Time Trial titles (2006-07). Most recently, Zabriskie finished third in stage 3 of the 2007 Dauphine Libere and second in stage 5 of the 2008 Tirreno-Adriatico.

Kristin Armstrong (Boise, Idaho), by virtue of her silver medal in the time trial at the 2007 world championships last September, earned the sole automatic nomination to the women's road team. The 2008 Games will be Armstrong's second Olympic appearance after competing in the road race in Athens. Armstrong is automatically qualified to contest both the road race and time trial in Beijing.

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