It's one thing to sit in a team's slipstream or ride the momentum of the peloton, but the truest measure of a cyclist is how he (or she) performs in an individual time trial (TT). On Friday, in Stage 5 of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California (TOC), 127 bicycle riders looked into the face of destiny to see who would crack and who would emerge triumphant. When the dust settled, it had become clear to all that Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) is the best bicycle rider in the TOC.

In an individual TT, it's just the bicycle rider against the clock. No drafting, no group tactics, no jockeying for a sprint finish, no using other riders for motivation. Finishing position is irrelevant, it's all about the time. It is cycling distilled down to its most primal essence: how fast can you go?.

Time trials also provide an effective means for thinning out a tightly packed leader board. As with mountain stages, racers can lose huge chunks of time to their rivals in a time trial. Friday's Stage 5 was no exception.

Coming to the finish line in yesterday's Stage 5 time trial, Levi's face said it all: this year, he is not going to be denied. Photo from Pez Cycling News.

Beginning at 11:00 a.m. under beautiful blue skies, rider after rider blasted down the start ramp at one-minute intervals for the 23.4-km TT circuit through the quaint Danish town of Solvang. Sporting solid disc wheels and aerodynamic helmets, each racer also wore a grim look of determination borne from the knowledge that they alone would be responsible for their performance. No place to hide in a TT.

The most determined of the group was Leipheimer, who lost the leader's gold jersey and ultimately the tour last year when he cracked on the Stage 3 individual TT, losing 1'15" to Floyd Landis on the streets of San Jose. After winning the Stage 3 TT, Landis never relinquished the lead en route to his TOC victory, so before he ever turned a pedal in anger yesterday, Leipheimer knew that if he wanted to win the Tour, he needed to win Stage 5.

Though he came into the day as the race leader, Leipheimer faced a formidable field of TT competitors, including three-time former World Time-Trial Champion Michael Rogers (T-Mobile), current World Time-Trial Champion Fabian Cancellara (CSC) and of course, German strong man and Stage 3 winner Jens Voigt (CSC), who came into the day lurking just three seconds off Levi's wheel in second place overall.

Leipheimer snatched the tour lead by beating unknown Jason Donald (Slipstream) by one second in the Prologue, a 3.1-km individual time trial in the streets of San Francisco. Though he has not relinquished the overall lead since, Levi benefited from a favorable decision by race commissaires to keep the lead following Stage 1, and relied on his Discovery teammates to help fight off challenges by Brooke Hilton (Navigators Insurance) and Voigt for his crown in Stage 3. In Stage 5, the pressure was on Levi to keep the gold jersey all by himself.

The first man to put up a benchmark time was Tom Zirbel (Priority Health), who set the early bar with a 30'56". His time was quickly eclipsed by the impressive Cancellara whose 30'17" looked for a while like it might be the time of the day. Prologue phenom Donald and Stage 4 winner Paolo Bettini could only manage average times, while disappointing performances from Chris Horner (Predictor Lotto) and Rory Sutherland (Health Net) dropped them out of the overall top 10. Last year's Stage 5 winner Georgie Hincapie nearly nipped Cancellara's time, coming up just three seconds short.

Suddenly, like a burst of static on the team radio, Jason McCartney (Discovery Channel), Leipheimer's partner in crime on the climb up Sierra Road in Stage 3, came blasting into the finishing chute with an unbelievable time of 30'05" to take the stage lead. A few minutes later, Voigt came barreling into town with a chance to take the lead. Paul Sherwen noted admiringly of Voigt, "he's not fluid, not classy, but he's fighting with guts, he's all over his machine." Better form in the strong headwind might have helped, but Voigt still managed to come in seven seconds under McCartney's time.

As it was on Sunday in the prologue, the huge crowd on hand turned its collective eyes upcourse to watch and wait for the man who would be King of the TOC. They didn't have to wait long. Flashing brilliant form and a Lance-like cadence, Leipheimer accelerated down Atterdag Street and made the treacherous left turn onto California Highway 246. With the finish line in sight, Levi gritted his teeth in determination, crossing the finish line as the crowd erupted with genuine affection.

It wasn't even close. Leipheimer's 29'40" obliterated Voigt's time by 18 seconds, extended his overall lead to 21 seconds, and left no doubt that this is his tour.

We love the humility of this guy:

"It's (the TT) what I've been dreaming about for a year now . . . I couldn't face the thought of letting them (teammates) down . . . that's what I told myself throughout the time trial."

We don't want to ruin it for you, but this tour is over (although our predictive track record is a bit spotty). With just two stages left, there is no way that Levi or his Discovery Channel homeboys are going to let anybody take time out of his lead. In the sophisticated chess match of stage racing, it's pretty much checkmate.

The real question now facing Levi and his Discovery Channel teammates is who will they be supporting as team leader in the Tour de France? Will it be Levi or the newest member of the team, Ivan Basso? Did Leipheimer give it his all in this Tour because he knows that Discovery will be riding for Basso in July? Many of the big Euros are clearly just using this tour as a training exercise; many of them specifically don't want to peak now. Can Levi peak twice in one year? Good stuff for cycling fans.

Though Leipheimer is sitting pretty, the lead over Voigt is only 18 seconds, and anything could happen in today's 169-km ride from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita. Stay tuned.