While it was another Discovery Channel dominated day at the Tour de Georgia, Colavita-Sutter Home rider Anthony Colby earned a measure of respect for the domestic ranks Friday, placing third on stage 5’s run to the top of Brasstown Bald.

The climbing specialist from Durango, Colorado, made it into the day’s prominent breakaway, then held his ground while the rest of that eight-rider move were pushed out of the top five.

“Honestly, I did something different,” said the 28-year-old Colby who won a pair of collegiate mountain bike racing titles in 2003 before making his move to the road. “I took a chance based on what happened on stage 3. I was just kind of like, ‘What the heck? I’ll just go for it.’ I have trouble getting in moves when we’re flying at like 50k an hour. But when we’re on a climb it’s a lot easier for me. I didn’t think that it would stick, so I just rode smart, conservatively, ate and drank.”

The break, which started with 16 riders, took shape on the day’s opening ascent, the cat. 4 climb up Fort Mountain. Colby was second over the top behind Navigators Phil Zajicek, and then held on when the group split, reducing the frontrunners to eight. After that Colby and the rest settled in to work, holding off the chase led by Jittery Joe’s and Saunier Duval-Prodir until the race’s waning moments.

Colby’s next critical decision came during the run up to the left-hand turn that leads to the Brasstown summit. Swiss Alexandre Moos (BMC) attacked out of the break dropping Zajicek and his teammate Ben Day, Toyota-United’s Chris Baldwin and finally Slipstream’s Danny Pate. That left the chase to Colby, Ryder Hesjedal (Health Net-Maxxis) and Michael Blaudzun (CSC).

“I knew we still had a ways to go and I didn’t want to do a lot of work, because I knew in the last three k that’s where the race was going to be won or lost,” recalled Colby, who was also third at the first road stage of Redlands this year. “Towards the end it was just flying by. I went on reserve a little bit once we got towards the climb and people started to get a little pushy. I was just holding my ground.”

Colby admitted his determination was tested when eventual stage winner Levi Leipheimer went “flying by.” But the Colavita rider managed to hold second-place finisher Tom Danielson’s wheel for a few hundred feet.

“When Levi went by it was demoralizing because he was moving so fast that I didn’t even know if I could make it over the top,” Colby said. “But when Danielson came by I got a little momentum from him, and from there it was just like, ‘What do I have to lose?’ It was a personal battle.

That fight yielded a place on the podium. Not bad for a guy who was racing cat. 2 just three years ago. “This was a long time in the making,” said Colby. “I got 14th here last year at Brasstown. Today it was one of those things where the top 10 was right in front of me and I took it. I feel I finally showed what I’m capable of.”

Anyone seen a wedding ring?
It was a tough-luck day in the saddle for Toyota-United’s Chris Baldwin. Besides getting popped out of the breakaway and fading to 73rd at 10:55, the Boulder, Colorado, resident lost his wedding ring somewhere on the road to Brasstown.

Baldwin started the day with the ring attached to his necklace, his usual practice when racing. But late in the day the necklace got caught and snapped, sending his ring skittering into the woods.

“I was tucking, trying to catch back on the descent and it got caught around my computer,” explained Baldwin about the drop off the top of Wolfpen Gap. “There was corners coming up and I just lifted up and it snapped my necklace. It’s gone.”

As for what happened at that critical juncture, Baldwin conceded he simply ran out of fuel.

“I felt great on the first climb, but then it was just a stupid amateur mistake,” he lamented. “I didn’t eat a big dinner or a big breakfast to do that kind of day, so I was trying to play catch-up all day with the calories. I knew I was going to come unglued eventually. There was just no sugar in the body.”