would go down on the last climb so as long as the guys were ok until there and we saved a few guys then everything was good.   At the top we were suffering, but everybody was suffering.?  

We also asked former race leader Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) if one of his goals today was to drop Bernhard (Kohl) and take the leader jersey?

?No I wasn?t even thinking of the jersey at all.   I just wanted to attack and try to break the race open.   I knew this climb wasn?t very hard, but I had to give it a go anyway.   There were not many opportunities left in the race.   I was trying to be aggressive and shake up the classification.   When I got to the top (of the climb) there was only one other guy with me, and I say, hey, I want to take the points so that was the only time I really thought about it ? right there at the top.?

Stage Six tomorrow will bring the riders 89.5 miles from Santa Barbara to Thousand Oaks on their final day of distance racing, followed by a circuit day finale in Redondo Beach on Sunday. Tomorrow?s shorter stage with a hilly profile features four KOM climbs and finishes with three laps of a three-mile circuit in Thousand Oaks that will cover the stages? final ten miles and finish at Amgen?s corporate campus.