After days of racing, hours of hard labor, crashes, strategizing and dozens of employed strategies, attacks and counterattacks, the overall competition at the Tour de Georgia comes down to a simple question: who has the best power-to-weight ratio?

The few favorites still in contention for the overall title will answer this physical test on the slopes of Brasstown Bald Mountain, where stage 6 concludes Saturday.

Coming at the end of an 88-mile day after Cat. 1 and Cat. 2 climbs, the HC Brasstown Bald is 3.1 miles long with an average gradient of 12 percent. At 4,784 feet, it’s the highest point in the state. Most of the 1,890-foot elevation gain comes at the end of the climb, where the road pitches as steeply as 25 percent.

It is here where the help of teammates and the advice of directors no longer matter. Here, each man is alone with his bike, and gravity. The winner will probably be producing power in excess of 6.3 watts per kilogram on the climb.

Having won here in the past, Astana’s Levi Leipheimer and Slipstream-Chipotle’s Tom Danielson are the big public favorites. Leipheimer won last year, 38 seconds ahead of his then-teammate Danielson. But Danielson took the two prior editions, 14 seconds ahead of Leipheimer (then Gerolsteiner) in 2005, and just in front of Floyd Landis in 2006.

Fitness-wise, Rock Racing’s Oscar Sevilla is a clear favorite for the stage win, although after the team time trial he sits 49 seconds behind Leipheimer, which would be tough to overcome for the overall.

But along with Leipheimer, Danielson’s teammate Trent Lowe is another favorite for the stage and the overall, although he will tell you otherwise.

“We’re riding for Tom more than anything,” Lowe said. “He’s the one who’s won here and proven himself on Brasstown. But we can feed off each other a little bit. Like Astana has Levi and Horner, it’s similar with us, we have Tom and myself.”

Testament to Lowe’s status as a protected rider came in stage 3, when Lowe flatted on the closing circuits and Slipstream’s Danny Pate, Lucas Euser and Christian Vande Velde immediately dropped back to give him a wheel and bring him back on. Testament to Lowe’s good form: he did most of the work to get back on there, when the brisk pace was spitting riders out the back like Toyota-United’s sprinter Ivan Dominguez.

On stage 5, Lowe made the small front group, while Danielson finished 17 seconds behind.

Asked about whether or not Lowe was a threat for Brasstown, Leipheimer held his cards close to his chest.

Danielson works his way up Brasstown last year

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

“There’s a lot of strong riders here,” Leipheimer said before stage 5. “We won’t know until we get there.”

What we know before they get there is this: Lowe — along with Slipstream teammates Dave Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde — now holds a 4-second advantage over Leipheimer. Technically, all Lowe, Zabriskie or Vande Velde has to do to win the race is stay with Leipheimer up Brasstown.

“But that’s a bit easier said than done,” Lowe said. “Brasstown is a bit of a drag race. We’ll do what we can when we can.”

Past Brasstown Bald victors:
2004 winner: Cesar Grajales (Jittery Joe’s)
Winning margin: 17 seconds ahead of Jens Voigt (CSC)

2005 winner: Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel)
Winning margin: 14 seconds ahead of Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner)

2006 winner: Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel)
Winning margin: Same time as Floyd Landis (Phonak)

2007 winner: Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel)
Winning margin: 38 seconds ahead of Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel)