Evans edges Contador
Cadel Evans can no longer be seen as a perennial runner-up. He’s been close to victories at the Tour in the past but never before has he celebrated a victory in a stage.
He held off a strong challenge by the defending champion at the Mûr-de-Bretagne and proved once again that he is one of the finest cyclists on the planet. This was a day “for the Ardennes Classics specialists” and sure enough it was the winner of last year’s Flèche Wallonne who took a victory by just a matter of millimeters in stage four. So far this year, he’s won a stage of Tirreno-Adriatico (and the title of the Italian stage race in March), he’s won the Tour de Romandie (for a second time)… but they were considered just training races for his main objective, the Tour de France.
He might not have taken the yellow jersey but the Australian will be pleased about that.
Thor Hushovd and his Garmin team have the responsibility of defending the GC lead and Evans can be content with his second place in the general classification after a stunning start to his sixth Tour de France.
The 172.5km fourth stage of the 2011 Tour de France, from Lorient on the coast to Mûr-de-Bretagne in the middle of Brittany, began at 1.09pm. There were 198 riders still in the race. The stage featured two categorized climbs, the cote de Laz (cat-4 at 79km) and the final ascent, the first cat-3 of the 98th Tour. The intermediate sprint was in Spézet at 92.5km. The start was wet with temperatures of around 17 degrees Celsius.
The first attack came from Roy (FDJ) at 9km; he was joined by Erviti (MOV), Izagirre (EUS), Kadri (ALM) and Hoogerland (VCD). The peloton allowed the move plenty of leeway and by 15km, the escape was 2’50” ahead. The maximum gain was 4’55” at 24km. BMC assumed position at the front of the peloton and by the 31km mark, the escapees were 3’30” ahead. The average speed for the first hour was 41.7km/h. Jurgen van de Walle (OLO) was the first rider to abandon the 2011 Tour.
He quit the stage around the 50km mark. The average for the second hour was 36.5km/h.
Just before the Laz climb, Hoogerland surged ahead of his escape companions and took the one point for the cat-4 climb. The Dutchman also led the escape over the line for the intermediate sprint. Meanwhile the Movistar team dominated the front of the peloton as it prepared a lead-out for Rojas who was strong in the sprint but couldn’t match the pace of Farrar (GRM) who claimed sixth place points, 2’30” behind the escapees.
The average speed for the third hour was 41.2km/h. Omega Pharma-Lotto and BMC did the most work at the front of the peloton. At the 108km mark, Liquigas and Leopard-Trek moved forward and started to set the pace.
Omega Pharma and BMC did most of the work at the front of the bunch but with 10km to go Leopard-Trek also moved forward with Cancellara helping to reduce the advantage of the escapees. Izagirre attacked 7.8km from the finish and was matched by Hoogerland but they regrouped at the 5km to go mark. The capture was at 4km to go and then the GC riders took command of the stage.
Hincapie (BMC) was one of the first at the front after the capture and his pace prompted the likes of Cavendish and Farrar and the other sprinters to lose contact. Even Cancellara couldn’t hold the pace after doing a strong turn to reel in the escapees. Once on the climb it was Vanendert who set the pace ahead of Gilbert but then Contador tried an attack down the left of the road.
This disintegrated the front group to just a handful of favourites… a moment of hesitation then allowed Hushovd to fight his way back into the lead group.
At the top of the climb – and with about 500m of flat – there was an easing in the speed as the favourites looked to see who would start the sprint. In the end, Evans found himself at the front Van den Broeck tried to gain an advantage.
This prompted others into action and it was the runner-up and winner of the 2007 Tour who reached the line virtually alongside each other.
Evans took the win by a matter of centimetres and claimed his second stage win of the Tour de France – after being retrospectively awarded the TT victory of stage 13 in the 2007 Tour.
Hushovd finished in sixth place, with the same time as the stage winner and he will wear the yellow jersey in the fifth stage.
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