Two bald men on Mt Baldy. There's gotta be a joke there.

A bit more on yesterday’s excellence before we move on to Stage 6:

Maybe not the best podium ever (I mean the pig, the trident, and this completely not photoshopped nonsense are all hard to beat) but certainly fantastic stuff.  Go Team America!

Also, let's please revisit adorable Waylon Zabriskie’s previous time on the podium, just for fun.

And just a quick note on that other nonsense. Why is everyone always trying to shit all over the Tour of California? Flandis was the bearer of weird news at exactly this time last year, and right on schedule, here comes Tyler Hamilton.  "I just love bikes so much, I absolutely have to tarnish the sport the only time people in America are paying attention."

And as for the leaked and/or made up grand jury business, all I can say is this:  As Daily Peloton suggests, the only thing George Hincapie ever tested positive for is massive charm.

Moving on.

Today we’re atop Mount Baldy. Which is not a derisive nickname for Levi, Chris Horner, Stuey, or Fake Stuey.

Well Ned Boulting and Matt Rendell are engaging in the completely pointless game of ‘how is Hamilton different to Hincapie?’, but they have at least drawn attention to the fact that this stuff about George is essentially total hearsay and we should probably just hold the phone a second on all the witch burning.

Ooops, I spoke too soon; they’ve brought on Frankie Andreau to say that Hamilton coming out 'lends weight and credibility' to Flandis’ stupidity of yesteryear.  Interesting take. I’m more inclined to agree with the headline I saw this morning: ‘Do two liars make a truth?’

To the race.

Heading into Mt Baldy there is “steep, endless, broken road.” Something to look forward to.

George in a breakaway, that’s what I like to see. 

Ted King meanwhile, is coming unhitched.  About to be picked up by the turkey vultures.

Amazing! On an earlier descent the bikes caught up with the cars cuz they were going faster than the cars could!

Everyone’s dumping water on themselves then calling to the teamcar. It’s about 80 F with no breeze.

“Everywhere Horner looks, there’s a potential threat. And a dark horse, and a wildcard.” Quite the colorful landscape out there.

Cam Wurf was just a bit hysterical. I think he was looking round for the team car, but it looked like he suddenly came out of a daydream and was like ‘what, WHAT? Where AM I?’

Yeah yeah, it’s higher and longer than Alpe D’Huez, but is Frank Schleck at the top of it?

That was deeply frightening. There was like ‘rider vision’ on that descent and it was so fast and insane I felt a bit sick.

Andrew Talansky is not pleased.  He just shouted very aggressively at the motorbike cam up ahead “COME ON!”

Uh, Ned Boulting and Matt Rendell are calling them Team Leopard. As in the animal. Did you get that memo? That breaks ALL THE RULES. And I can tell you weren’t using all caps.

Cruelty! The buses can’t go all the way up the mountain cuz there’s no space, so there they are parked on the side of the road.  At the end of the day, the riders have to do the descent to get back to the team bus.

Grischa is quite an interesting name.  (Grischa Niermann of Rabobank is going past) 

Brutal pacing by TheShack going on.

Stay strong George!! 

Oooh the catch.  Shite.

There’s like 3 riders left in the pelaton.  The rest have just been left to die at the base of the mountain.

Overheard crowd noise: “Hell yeah dude!” This race is so American.

Hey Tejay! He’s in the elite group!

Ummm "Rocking and rolling there as the Pope has come down to bless the race the afternoon.  And quite a good athlete he is too."

Other costumes seen up here on Baldy. Two sumo wrestlers, DEATH, a giant parrot, and Nixon in purple underwear.  Am I on something?

Tejay’s coming unhitched.  

 And Andy! I too, Phil, 'can’t believe this is going to happen'. More psychological warfare?

Ooh Andy’s back on.  Tejay not so much.

Matty Busche’s certainly impressive. But what do you expect from a guy talent spotted by TheShack after one season.

God Andy’s off again!  Now he’s being passed by Tejay and some other people.  This is a weird thing to see, I’ll be honest.  I don’t like it.

I’m being serious, I always suspected the reason George never became like a superstar was because, as a rather tall man, he was carrying allll that extra body up the road. And anyway all I’m saying is that Levi and Chris Horner are riding away on their own, and it’s no coincidence that they both moonlight on Little People, Big World.

Andy is NOWHERE.

The Shack Elves have left everyone waaaay behind.

Phil, they are not ‘head and shoulders’ above anybody today.  Don’t draw attention to it!

They really are very petite.

If Chris Horner did want to start a Lance/Bertie feud, he could go for the win today after Levi did all that work…

Aww damn, it was a little sweet when they crossed holding hands.

Of course we’ve immediately gone to the TOTAL SADNESS of Andy way down the road, being passed by everyone and their mum.  Good god.

Ha, Matt Rendell’s ever more quotable: “We should be fearing him [Andy] in July precisely because he’s doing so badly now.”

Uhhh why is Levi getting a giant check for 5000 dollars? 

We don’t do French bashing here, but looking at the GC is slightly amazing.  All top 5 positions are held by Americans. You don't get that for the French at the Tour de France.