On the eve of the Tour of California, U.S. national champion Levi Leipheimer unveiled a petition (letleviride.com) aimed to get the Amaury Sports Organization to reverse its un-vitation of Astana — Leipheimer’s new team — to the Tour de France.

Then Leipheimer channeled his anger into defending his title in California.

Leipheimer and his Astana teammates made it official Sunday in the final stage, but the stage for his yellow jersey was set with a pair of epic performances by Leipheimer.

Sierra Grande climb and pursuit: In Stage 3 from Modesto to Santa Clara, Astana teammates Chechu Rubiera and Chris Horner set a blistering pace on the hors categorie Sierra Grande climb, leaving Leipheimer and youngster Robert Gesink of Rabobank to summit with a 1 minute 15-second gap. But that was just the start of the fun.

Leipheimer and Gesink maintained their lead on a wild 20-mile descent into San Jose/run-in to Santa Clara, with a world-class chase group in hot pursuit. The group, which grew to 14 on the descent, included world time trial champ Fabian Cancellara, former world champ David Millar of Slipstream-Chiptle/H3O and three U.S. time trial champ David Zabriskie of Slipstream. Millar called it the “best chase group I’ve ever been in,” according to ToC broadcasters.

Leipheimer allowed Gesink to take the stage win in exchange for his shared work in holding off the elite chase group, which finished 19 seconds behind — enough to put Leipheimer in yellow by 13 seconds ahead of Cancellara of CSC.

Solvang time trial: In the 15-mile Stage 5 time trial, Leipheimer crushed the 15-mile course in 30 minutes 46 seconds, 29 seconds of Millar and 45 ahead of American Christian Vandevelde of Slipstream. Cancellara, who seemed to be Leipheimer’s biggest threat going into the TT, finished 1:15 behind Leipheimer, all but clinching the yellow for Leipheimer.

After that, all Leipheimer had to do was stay out of trouble, and his Astana teammates made sure that happened.

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