September 16, 2002 – Navigators' Tom Leaper carried the colors of the Navigators squad through the streets of San Francisco yesterday to a strong, 5th place finish in front of 4-time Tour de France Champion Lance Armstrong. The 2nd annual S.F.G.P. was a shorter version (110 miles) of last year's race, but included the infamous Fillmore Street and Taylor Street climbs, as the 10-mile course wound its way through all of San Francisco's most popular attractions and tourist hot spots.

With an estimated 500,000 spectators watching, the action began on lap-2 as a group of 11 put distance on the rest of the peloton. The Navigators' men-in-blue were well represented with Chris Baldwin, Vassili Davidenko and Burke Swindlehurst in attendance with representatives from all of the major teams. However, the Acqua-Sapone team didn't like the combination and closed the gap after just a few laps. Shortly afterward, a counter-attack of 8 riders went up the road, including Navigators' Siro Camponogara. Again, all of the major teams were represented, but US Postal was not comfortable with just having Chann McRae in the break, so they brought this escape attempt under control.

With two of the large laps remaining, Defending Champion George Hincapie went on a solo attack that gained nearly 1-minute and lasted to the half way mark on the 5-mile finishing circuits. Immediately, the attacks and counter-attacks began, and within a short time another group of seven moved clear. This final selection contained Navigators' Tom Leaper, Canada's Charles Dionne (7-Up), Henk Vogels (Mercury), Massimo Giunti (Acqua-Sapone) and Lance Armstrong, Olympic Gold Medallist Viatcheslav Ekimov, and George Hincaoie (all US Postal). With their members composing almost half of the final selection, all eyes were on the “other” blue train of US Postal to drive the break for the final 12 miles. On the final ascent of the Taylor St. hill, an attack by Ekimov was matched by Dionne, and the others followed immediately. As the racers headed back to the Embarcadero, it appeared that a group sprint was in the making. As the finish line loomed in front of them, a last-ditch attack by Ekimov, then Armstrong were quickly neutralized, leaving the door open to the sprinters. In a full-on sprint to the line, it was Dionne taking the win in front of Vogels, with Giunti in 3rd, Ekimov in 4th and Leaper in 5th.