Lookout Mountain, TN - Nathan O'Neill of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis showed that his form coming into his debut race of 2007 is back where it was in January when he won his record eighth Australian National Time Trial Championship. But he surprised even himself a little bit by taking third place in the 30.4 km individual time trial of the Tour de Georgia.

"I knew my form was potentially good, but it's really hard to know until you make the effort," O'Neill said. "It's a great result considering the last few months have been spent recovering from accidents. I've had no racing and I've hardly been on my TT bike. So it's definitely encouraging going forward."

Levi Leipheimer (Discovery) built on the momentum of his Tour of California win in February by winning the Stage 4 TT in a time of 44:51, 0:41 ahead of U.S. national time trial champion David Zabriskie (CSC). O'Neill posted a time of 46:09. And while he didn't win the stage, O'Neill still felt good about his third place on the day. "The two guys who finished ahead of me are two of the best time trialists in the world, so I'm definitely in good company on the podium."

O'Neill noted that the course was hard on everyone, and was even more difficult than last year, though it was almost identical to last year's course. "It was almost entirely uphill, and it seemed like no matter what direction you turned, there was a block headwind. There just weren't any fast sections this year."

Louder up to 4th overall

He may not have turned in as good a time as he wanted, but Jeff Louder of Health Net Presented by Maxxis did well enough in relation to his break-away mates from the third stage to move up to 4th overall, moving ahead of former race leader David Canada Garcia (Saunier Duval-Prodir), who dropped to 5th overall, two seconds behind Louder.

"I feel pretty average about my ride today," Louder said. "It wasn't an amazing day. I think the efforts of yesterday might have caught up with me a bit and I didn't do as well as I hoped." He posted a time of 49:48, good enough for 36th place on the day.

Janez Brajkovic (Discovery) and Christian Vandevelde (CSC), both of whom were in the break yesterday, posted strong times to take the top two spots on GC, with Brajkovic holding a 12-second advantage over the American from CSC. Rubens Bertogliata also rode well to hold onto the third spot on GC after sitting 2nd overall going into the TT. He's now 1:22 behind the leader, and 0:58 ahead of Louder.

Despite being a bit disappointed about his TT, Louder was optimistic about Friday's queen stage that finishes atop the infamous Brasstown Bald. "I feel good about the way I'm climbing right now," he said. "I didn't have much trouble getting over the climbs in the break. I put a lot of effort into training for this race. I think my climbing legs are good, maybe a bit better than my TTing legs. I rode up all the big climbs around where I live in Utah.

"I've never had a good ride up Brasstown, but I've never been in this position on GC going into it, so I definitely have added motivation," he said. "I'm gonna do everything I can to get up it. No holds barred."

Notes

Louder's teammate and break mate of yesterday, Tim Johnson, posted a good ride of 49:50 for 38th place. Johnson's ride moved him up a notch to 8th overall.

On the strength of Louder and Johnson's position, as well as moves up the GC by O'Neill (15th overall), as well as Ryder Hesjedal (13th in the TT, 23rd overall) and Rory Sutherland (14th in the TT, 24th overall), the team has moved into the second position in the race for team classification. Discovery, long considered one of the best teams at the time trial, showed that again today, placing five riders in the top 11 on the stage, including Brajkovic in 11th. This gave them a solid hold on the top spot in the team classification.

The Tour de Georgia continues Friday with a 172 km stage from Dalton to Brasstown Bald that includes three rated climbs, finishing with the HC climb up to Brasstown Bald.

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