Michael Rogers nears victory in Tour of California, even as Landis steals his thunder

The Amgen Tour of California passed Floyd Landis by Saturday.

As Landis ate hamburger sliders in a hospitality tent, guarded by security men wearing bulletproof vests and carrying guns and billy clubs, the California-based HTC-Columbia team owned the racing day Saturday while the American men who were accused by Landis of participating in performance-enhancing doping, straggled in with disappointing rides.

Tony Martin, a 25-year-old German, won the 20.9-mile time trial that began and ended in front of LA Live, and his teammate, 30-year-old Michael Rogers of Australia strengthened his hold on the overall lead by finishing second.

Martin rode the course in 41 minutes 41.14 seconds, 22 seconds faster than Rogers. After Stage 7, Rogers has an overall time of 29 hours 46.06 minutes, nine seconds better than Dave Zabriskie of Garmin-Transitions and 25 seconds ahead of three-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer of Team RadioShack.

Leipheimer looked bedraggled after his time trial performance. His fourth-place finish in the stage means he is unlikely to win a fourth straight title, with only Sunday’s 83.5-mile circuit race through Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills left.

New Los Angeles resident Zabriskie, who led the race for two stages, finished third Saturday and faces a difficult road to finish better than the second place he earned a year ago.

On Wednesday, in a story first published by the Wall Street Journal, Leipheimer and Zabriskie, along with fellow American riders Lance Armstrong (Team RadioShack) and BMC’s George Hincapie, were accused by Landis of illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs in the time before Landis failed a drug test while winning the 2006 Tour de France.

The next day Armstrong crashed out of the Tour of California outside of Visalia, and the event since has been dominated by debate over whether Landis’ accusations have merit. Landis had vehemently fought the results of his failed drug test until Wednesday when, in response to the Wall Street Journal story, Landis told ESPN that he had, indeed, engaged in illegal doping.

Since then Rogers has quietly gone about the business of winning this race. His time trial run Saturday was authoritative. “Beating both Dave and Levi was a great ride for me,” Rogers said. “We’re all experienced time trialists but this was one of my better time trials in a long time,” he said.

For Leipheimer, short of making an unlikely comeback Sunday, this race has been a disappointment. “If I come to the Tour of California and I don’t win, I lose,” he said. “There are a lot of expectations. This Tour of California has been very, very hard.”

Leipheimer also made his first comments about Landis’ accusations after the stage. “This isn’t new to us,” he said. “We knew something was coming. To be honest, I’m not worried about it. And, no, I have nothing to say” to Landis.

While Leipheimer seemed resigned to not winning again, Zabriskie was more discouraged. “I’m disappointed, of course,” he said. “But I don’t think the race is over yet, and I’d say that even if I was in the leader’s jersey.”

As Rogers was reveling in his standing and saying a win in this race would be his biggest victory ever, Bob Stapleton, a Riverside native who owns and runs the HTC-Columbia team, said the last few days have been both rewarding and difficult.

Stapleton bought the team, which was once known as T-Mobile and was most famously led by another doping-disgraced racer, Jan Ullrich, because of his belief that cycling can be cleaned of drugs.

“Floyd is talking about history when it’s really about the future,” Stapleton said. “You have a new group of riders coming up. I hate to see the progress we’ve made lost by looking in the rear-view mirror. I know nobody has suffered like Floyd, and he has my sympathy, but we need to look ahead.”

Landis spent about two hours in a hospitality tent hosted by his doctor, Brent Kay. Landis refused to speak to the media, and about 10 minutes after the race ended he bolted for an SUV followed by photographers and the security guards, one of whom tripped and fell, suffering a bloody cut.

So once again Landis made more news than the men racing.

Rogers has been gracious in accepting that his performance has been overshadowed by the Landis controversy.

But the father of three-year-old twin daughters was wise enough to understand where he was Saturday, across the street from Staples Center, the home of the Lakers and Kobe Bryant.

Asked whether there was any chance Bryant might recognize the name “Michael Rogers,” the Aussie said, without the blink of an eye, “Who?”

It was the line of a good straight man, but Rogers is more than that. He is an accomplished racer who is a three-time winner of the world time trial championships and a stage winner at the Tour de France.

And even if he wins the race, Rogers is destined be a side note to this event.

Landis didn’t look up when Rogers crossed the finish line. He was getting ready to run from the cameras.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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