Brasstown Bald, GA - In Disney's animated classic Fantasia, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain provides a potent soundtrack to a visual cacophony depicting a battle with the elements on the exposed rock. The characters are lashed by wind and rain, filled with a sense of dread.

It's a stunning display, but ultimately, it is as the movie's title suggests: fantasy.

Conversely, the pain and suffering the remaining riders faced on the Tour de Georgia's Bald mountain was far more frightening, simply because it was real. And while the 5th stage of the Tour de Georgia ran to the top of Brasstown Bald under mostly clear skies, that did little to alleviate the suffering on the mountain's final, steep kilometers.

On those steep slopes, a select few fought the battles for the stage win and final overall podium. Ryder Hesjedal of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis, part of the main break of the day, reached the foot of Brasstown with the survivors of his eight-man break two minutes ahead of the chasing peloton.

"Our plan today was to put Ryder in the break, and then have everyone else ride for Tim (Johnson) and Jeff (Louder), with Nathan (O'Neill) riding his own climb at the end," said Jeff Corbett, directeur sportif of Health Net Presented by Maxxis. "The plan worked to a T, though the break didn't have quite enough of a gap at the base of Brasstown."

Alexander Moos (BMC), Hesjedal's teammate on Phonak in 2006, had just put in an attack on the flats leading up to the base of the climb, quickly dropping Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) and Ben Day and Phil Zajicek (both Navigators) from the break.

Hesjedal, Anthony Colby (Colavita-Sutter Home), Michael Blaudzun (CSC) and Danny Pate (Slipstream) gave chase up the lower slopes of the climb. Meanwhile, behind the leaders, the peloton was exploding on the shoulders of the 4,784-foot mountain.

Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Tom Danielson and Levi Leipheimer (both Discovery) rolled off the front of the bunch, with Danielson launching his teammate in pursuit of the remnants of the break. Just behind the trio, Nathan O'Neill of Health Net Presented by Maxxis started to make his move, as well, looking strong after his 3rd place in the TT on Thursday.

"I wasn't right at the front when we hit the base of the climb so I didn't see exactly what happened up there," O'Neill said. "I just wanted to ride a good tempo. I started out steady and just kind of ramped up the speed. I was feeling good so I kept going a bit faster, and then I started to pick off riders. I came up to (Janez) Brajkovic (Discovery) and (Christian) Vandevelde (CSC) and passed them. I came up past Ryder, and then Moos. Then I saw Simoni in front of me and I overtook him as well."

In the end, O'Neill finished 4th on the stage, just a few seconds behind Colby, who finished 3rd.

Leipheimer, meanwhile, had overtaken everyone by the 1 km to go banner, and cruised in solo, 0:38 ahead of his teammate, Danielson. Simoni followed O'Neill by 0:13, while Moos hung on for 6th, and Hesjedal just a few seconds behind him in 7th. "I worked pretty hard to get the break going," Hesjedal said. "I put in a lot of effort on the first KoM." His efforts paid off though, as he took over the leader's jersey in the KoM competition from Louder.

Louder didn't have quite as good a day on Brasstown as he was hoping. He came into the penultimate stage in 4th overall, sandwiched between Saunier Duval-Prodir teammates Rubens Bertogliata and David Canada.

"I just didn't have a good day. I think the race the other day (Stage 3) took a lot out of me," Louder said. "I'm a little disappointed but happy for the boys, happy for Nathan and Ryder, and happy for Tim. He's riding really well. I didn't come into this race expecting a top 10 finish, so I'm one it all settles down I'll consider it a good result, but it wasn't as good as we were hoping today."

When the dust settled, he was still in 7th overall, just ahead of teammate Johnson, who put in another solid ride, holding onto his 8th overall position in the general classification. Canada and Bertogliata both moved up, swapping positions, with Canada in 3rd and Bertogliata in 4th.

Brajkovic and Vandevelde, the two leaders on the overall coming into the stage, finished nearly side by side despite repeated attacks by Vandevelde. The CSC rider finished 9th on the stage just ahead of Brajkovic, leaving the top two spots on GC unchanged, and likely cementing the young Discovery rider's hold on the top of the general classification.

Official Results