San Jose, CA - Nathan O'Neill of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis dug deep on the final grueling climb of Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California to finish with the elite front group in San Jose.

"It was definitely a hard day," O'Neill said. "Levi (Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner) put a lot of people in difficulty on the last climb up Sierra Road."

The fireworks actually started on the second to last climb of the day, going over Calaveras Road just after coming out of the town of Sunol. With a break of three riders, who had been away since the first KoM in Lafayette just 12 miles into the stage, still over three minutes up the road, Discovery and CSC put their guys on the front and strung out the pack on the long, gradual climb up Calaveras. "It was fairly civilized up until then," O'Neill commented. "But I guess they wanted to pick up the pace and shed some guys."

The two Pro Tour teams succeeded, shredding the peloton and softening the pack for the final climb. Until that point, Gerolsteiner had been riding tempo, content to let the break go up the road. But the higher tempo also meant the beginning of the end for the break-away.

When the diminished field got to the base of Sierra, a four-mile suffer-fest of a climb with an average grade of over 10%, the fireworks really started to go off. The break still had a gap of around two minutes, but they had been off the front for the better part of 60 miles and it came down quickly.

"Leading into the bottom of the climb it was crazy. It was like a bunch of lead-out trains," O'Neill said. "Gerolsteiner was lined up. United was lined up. A lot of guys hit out really hard at the base of the Sierra climb and just blew up along the way.

"I tried to ride within myself. I got a good rhythm and sure enough, within a couple kilometers, I was starting to pick guys off. I was able to ride up to and through the second group on the road, and then up to the first group. By then, I didn't have too many bullets left in the chamber, but I knew that once I was over the top, I could take a couple deep breaths and catch on to the front group."

It was a very small front group, with Leipheimer and Floyd Landis (Phonak) being joined by Bobby Julich (CSC), but everybody was having trouble hanging onto Levi's wheel. However, the small chase group quickly re-joined the three leaders, and by the bottom of the descent, the second group had integrated and the bunch was up to 22.

Coming into the finish, Discovery had the numbers and was able to set up George Hincapie for the stage win, and the 10-second time bonus that came with it - enough to take the leader's jersey away from Leipheimer. O'Neill finished 18th, five seconds behind Hincapie, after a slight split occurred in the approach to the finish line. He now sits in 18th overall, 26 seconds back of Hincapie.

"We'll see what happens Wednesday with the time trial," he added. "All the top guys are within striking distance."

The Amgen Tour of California continues Wednesday with an rolling 17-mile individual time trial on the southern outskirts of San Jose.

Notes

Hayden Roulston, who came into the stage 8th overall, finished 43rd at 3:22 behind Hincapie. He now sits 25th overall at 3:37.