Santa Barbara, CA - Everybody expected the final climb of today's Stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California to be decisive. It also came as little surprise that it was the Gerolsteiner team of Levi Leipheimer, sitting 6th overall just two seconds behind Nathan O'Neill of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis, that lit the fuse on the fireworks.

With the remnants of a four-man break still up the road by about a minute, Gerolsteiner lined up three riders on the front and drilled it from the bottom of the Category 1 climb over San Marcos Pass, which gains nearly 1,500 feet in four miles. The pack, which had mostly stayed together until that point, immediately began to fragment. One by one, Leipheimer's teammates peeled off the front, while riders in bunches fell of the blistering pace.

"Levi had his teammates do a one-two-three thing and it put a lot of people on the ropes," said O'Neill.

Finally, Leipheimer launched off the front alone, with Ricardo Ricco (Prodir-Saunier Duval) the only rider able to bridge to Leipheimer, determined to make more noise in his home state tour.

"When he finally went off the front," O'Neill continued, "it was actually a bit of a relief because the main bunch eased off a bit. There was about a minute-and a-half or two that I was feeling a bit rough."

The Leipheimer and Ricco bridged to the three remaining riders from the break, which included another of his Gerolsteiner teammates, Sebastian Lang. He sold out for his team leader, and Leipheimer and Ricco continued up the road, opening a gap of :20 on the main field. But slowly, the gap started to close, with a group of 40 strong men grinding their way back up to Leipheimer.

"Once our bunch started working its way back up to them, I started to feel a bit more comfortable," O'Neill said. "I pretty much sat on a wheel up to the top. I was actually a bit surprised I was that comfortable."

From climbing to sprinting

Once the 40-man group absorbed the two leaders, it became apparent that it would come down to a sprint finish out of the front group. Health Net Presented by Maxxis strongman Hayden Roulston, who was initially gapped when the heat turned up on San Marcos, had slowly made his way back up to the front group, and immediately become the team's top threat in the sprint.

"I got gapped off early, and just worked my way back up to the pack," Roulston said. "I was back on by about 2 km from the top."

"Hayden did a great job of getting himself back up to the front group," team directeur sportif Jeff Corbett added.

Roulston used the descent to recover. "His primary job was to look after Nathan coming into Santa Barbara," Corbett continued. "Once it looked like everything was staying together, I told him to start sniffing around for the sprint."

Coming up the finishing straight on Cabrillo Street in Santa Barbara, Roulston was well positioned behind the train of Discovery, trying to set up George Hincapie for the stage win. With the pack moving up the left side, Roulston lit out up the right side from 300 meters out. "Then the group moved to the right and I had to check up a bit," Roulston said. Instead, he had to settle for 7th across the line behind stage winner Hincapie.

For O'Neill, he said after the stage, "my primary objective was to not lose time to Levi. But Levi has the mountains jersey now, which hopefully will make him a bit happier."

The Amgen Tour of California continues with a 90-mile run from Santa Barbara to the Amgen campus in Thousands Oaks. The stage features four categorized climbs.