USA Cycling and American Levi Leipheimer have clarified the events surrounding the Astana rider’s non-participation in the world road championship race held Sunday in Varese, Italy.

Contradicting earlier reports, the national federation acknowledged Friday that Leipheimer had never intended to compete in the road race.

“Instead, [Leipheimer’s] focus was solely on the time trial earlier in the week, an event in which he won an Olympic bronze medal in Beijing this summer, as well as both individual time trial stages at the Vuelta a España last month,” USA Cycling stated.

On September 16, USA Cycling announced its elite men’s road team roster, with Leipheimer listed as a member of the squad.

Both Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie were also slotted to compete in the September 25 time trial. Zabriskie finished with a bronze time trial medal, while Leipheimer, the winner of two individual time trials at last month’s Vuelta a España, finished fourth, 13 seconds behind Zabriskie.

On September 26, one day after the time trial and two days before the road race, the wire service Agence France Presse, to which VeloNews subscribes, quoted USA Cycling’s Andy Lee saying Leipheimer had withdrawn from the road race following the time trial because he “didn't feel up for the leadership of our relatively young team at the road race.”

However in an interview with VeloNews earlier this week, Leipheimer denied Lee’s statement from Varese, explaining that he never intended to enter the road race.

“I don’t understand what Andy Lee was talking about. In fact I emailed him about it and never got a response,” Leipheimer said Wednesday. “I was a little bit upset by that. (USA Cycling) knew all along I wasn’t doing the road race. I never planned on it. My intentions were only on the time trial. They went ahead and said I pulled out, and didn’t want to lead the team, or whatever. I think they just didn’t want to field a spot and they blamed it on me, or something. I’m not happy about it.”

One of the reasons Leipheimer was upset was because he said he came across as having wasted a spot on the road team for another member. The spot the federation had reserved for Leipheimer was granted to BMC rider Brent Bookwalter.

“It looks like I just wasted a spot for somebody else, some young guy who wanted to be there, but I never wanted to do the road race,” Leipheimer said. “I knew I had to choose one of the two and go for it. If you are going to do the road race seriously it’s better not to do the time trial, and take more time to recover from the Vuelta.”

As a 2008 U.S. Olympic team member, Leipheimer received an automatic selection to represent the United States in the road race. However, shortly after the nominations were announced on September 16, Leipheimer informed USA Cycling of his intention to contest only the time trial in Varese — a race for which he automatically qualified by winning stage 5 of the Vuelta on September 3. As a result, USA Cycling awarded Brent Bookwalter with a discretionary nomination to the road race team as a replacement for Leipheimer.

Friday, in an attempt to amend the confusion, USA Cycling explained that, “it was reported on Friday, September 26, that U.S. National Team member Levi Leipheimer had withdrawn from Sunday’s road race competition. That was not the case.”

The release went to quote Lee saying, “Levi has always represented the United States proudly and well in international competition. We regret that we didn’t clearly communicate Levi's intentions to ride only the time trial at the outset of the world championships.”

Leipheimer said his reason for not entering the road race was due to his focus on the Olympic Games and Vuelta a España. Leipheimer took a bronze medal in the Olympic time trial, and finished second overall at the Vuelta behind teammate Alberto Contador.

“One of problems with cycling is that our calendar is so full that to schedule all these races is near impossible — it is impossible,” Leipheimer said. “To finish a grand tour and then have three days — one day travel, one day rest, one day of scouting course and a little training to prepare for the next day — that’s not much rest after a grand tour, especially after you finish on the podium. I had to give it my best, because after winning two time trials at the Vuelta, I knew I had a good chance to win. But looking back, you can’t take those three days and go up against a fresh set of guys who have been at home training specifically for that race.”

Check velonews.com Monday for an expanded interview with Leipheimer, where he discusses the 2009 team dynamics between himself, Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong.