Tour de London

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

5km - A big Liquigas train has moved to the fore on the left hand side of the field.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Seems Greg Dyke doesn't have the pace for the Tour!

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

3.5km - Four Barloworld riders are there for Robbie Hunter, there;s a good presence from T-Mobile too. Could Mark Cavendish make an impact?

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

3km - Milram are conspicuous in their absence at the front.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

1.7km - German champion Fabian Wegmann hits the front now. He's working for big Robert Forster.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

1km - The Quickstep train hits the front!!

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

0.5km - Hushovd hits the front, Boonen is nowhere to be seen!!

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

0km - Hushovd goes for the line....and he has it!!! Julian Dean gave him the perfect lead out. Robbie Hunter was just millimetres behind.

 

More to follow as the standings are being given....

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Villers-Cotterêts - Joigny Final standings

1 T Hushovd

2 R Hunter

3 O Freire Gomez

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd prevailed in a mass sprint to take victory in stage four of the Tour de France in Joigny.

 

The big Norwegian sat patiently on the wheel of lead-out man Julian Dean, before surging for the line with 200 metres to go and holding off a late charge from Barloworld's Robbie Hunter.

 

Rabobank's Oscar Freire finished third, followed by Erik Zabel and Danilo Napolitano.

 

Fabian Cancellara finished safely in the peloton and kept hold of his yellow jersey. Hushovd now leapfrogs Andreas Kloeden in the overall standings, moving to 29 seconds behing Cancellara.

 

The quintet of Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), Matthieu Sprick (Bouygues), Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel), Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) and Christian Knees (Milram) broke away from the pack soon after the first climb of the day, the fourth-category Veuilly-la-Poterie.

 

Unfortunately for them, the peloton was not content to trundle along at the pedestrian pace that made Tuesday's stage the slowest in the Tour since 1947, and their advantage never climbed above the five-minute mark.

 

A fall in the peloton after 70 kilometres saw Caisse d'Epargne rider Xabier Zandio become the third man to abandon the Tour, while Remy di Gregorio (FdJ) received treatment from the medical car for minor injuries.

 

Led by the CSC and Quickstep teams, the peloton brought the gap back down to one minute with 20 kilometres to go, and finally swallowed up the five escapees seven kilometres from the finish line despite a brief attack from Knees.

 

The blue Quickstep train led the peloton into the long, straight finish to the stage, though when Gert Steegmans moved aside, Tom Boonen was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Dean moved to the fore, giving team-mate Hushovd the perfect platform to take his fifth stage win in the Tour.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Overall yellow jersey standings.

 

Fabian CANCELLARA CSC 19:49:55.000

Thor HUSHOVD C.A +00:00:29

Andréas KLÖDEN AST +00:00:33

David MILLAR SDV +00:00:41

George HINCAPIE DSC +00:00:43

Bradley WIGGINS COF +00:00:43

Sylvain CHAVANEL COF +00:00:44

Vladimir GUSEV DSC +00:00:45

Tom BOONEN QSI +00:00:46

Vladimir KARPETS GCE +00:00:46

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Green Jersey Points Standings.

 

Tom BOONEN QSI 98

Erik ZABEL MRM 86

Robbie MC EWEN PRL 84

Robert HUNTER BAR 81

Thor HUSHOVD C.A 79

Sébastien CHAVANEL FDJ 70

Gert STEEGMANS QSI 66

Oscar FREIRE RAB 62

Robert FÖRSTER GST 59

Romain FEILLU AGR 57

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

King of the mountain points standings.

 

Stéphane AUGE COF 9

Sylvain CHAVANEL COF 7

David MILLAR SDV 7

Christian KNEES MRM 5

Aleksandr KUSCHYNSKI LIQ 5

Freddy BICHOT AGR 3

Juan Antonio FLECHA RAB 3

Andriy GRIVKO MRM 2

Matthieu LADAGNOUS FDJ 2

Matthieu SPRICK BTL 2

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Young Rider Standings

 

1 113 Vladimir GUSEV DSC 19h50'40.000'' 00.000''

2 054 Thomas DEKKER RAB 19h50'46.000'' 06.000''

3 169 Benoît VAUGRENARD FDJ 19h50'47.000'' 07.000''

4 184 Andriy GRIVKO MRM 19h50'48.000'' 08.000''

5 112 Alberto CONTADOR DSC 19h50'50.000'' 10.000''

6 102 William BONNET C.A 19h50'51.000'' 11.000''

7 025 Linus GERDEMANN TMO 19h50'53.000'' 13.000''

8 095 Bernhard KOHL GST 19h50'59.000'' 19.000''

9 165 Philippe GILBERT FDJ 19h51'01.000'' 21.000''

10 215 Thomas GERAINT BAR 19h51'02.000'' 22.000''

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Team Standings

 

1 AST ASTANA 59h32'03.000'' 00.000''

2 CSC TEAM CSC 59h32'05.000'' 02.000''

3 DSC DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 59h32'08.000'' 05.000''

4 GCE CAISSE DEPARGNE 59h32'21.000'' 18.000''

5 COF COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 59h32'23.000'' 20.000''

6 TMO T-MOBILE TEAM 59h32'48.000'' 45.000''

7 RAB RABOBANK 59h32'50.000'' 47.000''

8 FDJ FRANCAISE DES JEUX 59h32'51.000'' 48.000''

9 LIQ LIQUIGAS 59h32'55.000'' 52.000''

10 QSI QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC 59h32'57.000'' 54.000''

 

[coupwotcoup]

Didn't realise you were a fan too. I got into it about ten years ago, having watched the first stage of the Tour de Catalunya. Loved it ever since. Paris - Rouaix is one of my faves...across the cobbles. Sorts the men from the junkies....

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Well stay tooned fella.... I got into it while in NZ, a mate of mine is a keen cyclist and wouldn't stop bleating on about it until I went to a few races.... I ended up being a road marshall and getting a bit involved over there.

 

It's all good stuff though.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Should get the stage 5 headlines underway from just after 11am!

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

TODAY's STAGE:

 

Chablis to Autun - 182.5km.

 

KEY MOMENTS:

 

36km - Intermediate Sprint 1 - Avallon

 

39.5km - Côte des Grandes-Châtelaines - Cat 4 (1.5 km @ avg 6.7 %)

 

52.5km - Côte de Domecy-sur-Cure - Cat 4 (1.3 km @ avg 6.2 %)

 

58.5km - Côte de Champignolles-le-Bas - Cat 3 (2.0 km @ avg 6.5 %)

 

86.5km - Côte de Coulon - Cat 4 (1.0 km @ avg 6.2 %)

 

94.5km - Intermediate Sprint 2 - Montreuillon

 

98.5km - Côte de Saint-Maurice - Cat 3 (3.0km @ avg 5.2 %)

 

119.0km - Côte de Château-Chinon - Cat 4 (2.5 km @ avg 3.8 %)

 

135.5km - Haut-Folin - Cat 2 (12.9km @ avg 3.7 %)

 

145km - Intermediate Sprint 3 - Bibracte-Mont-Beuvray

 

174.0km - Côte de la Croix de la Libération - Cat 3 (3.4 km @ avg 5.4 %)

 

THE TIPPING POINT:

 

The sheer number of climbs throughout the stage throws it open to some of the all-rounders in the peloton. The sprinters' teams will have their work cut out if they are to reel in the breakaways over this hilly course. David Millar would be in with a shout, though with the Scot lying just 41 seconds behind Fabian Cancellara, the CSCs will be watching him like a hawk. Look out for Gerolsteiner's Stefan Schumacher, and Liquigas' Filippo Pozzato, while Erik Zabel and Oscar Freire seem the sprinters best-equipped to deal with the profile of the course.

 

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

ONE's TO WATCH:

 

3rd - Andreas Klöden (Astana)

10th - Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d'Epargne) @ 13 seconds to klöden

12th - Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) @ 17"

18th - Alberto Contador (Discovery) @ 22"

20th - Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) @ 22"

21st - Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) @ 23"

34th - Levi Leipheimer (Discovery) @ 27"

35th - Denis Menchov (Rabobank) @ 27"

37th - Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Épargne) @ 29"

87th - Carlos Sastre (CSC) @ 43"

89th - Frank Schleck (CSC) @ 44"