Cadel Evans wins fourth stage and Thor Hushovd retains his overall lead in 2011 Tour De France
BMC Racing team’s Cadel Evans won the mass sprint of the fourth stage of 2011 Tour de France on Tuesday July, 5. Thor Hushovd maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Lorient and ended in Mûr-de-Bretagne. The 34-year-old Australian professional cyclist took a total of 4 hours, 11 minutes and 39 seconds to cover the distance of 172 kilometres.
After winning the stage, Cadel said, "It was so close I couldn't see who won it myself, It was a really calm start considering the conditions and course. Towards the end it became really nervous. My job here is to do classification but I'll take this very
gladly. I'm so happy with the guys today."
Recently, Cadel took the overall lead in Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de Romandie. He also grabbed the overall second place in Criterium du Dauphine.
Alberto Contador Velasco of Saxo Bank Sungard was the runner-up and Alexandre Vinokourov of Pro Team Astana finished in the third spot.
Race leader, Thor Hushovd, was also in good form and tried his best to take a lead, but he failed to maintain his pace and grabbed the sixth place, while Bradley Wiggins took 11th place with a difference of 6 seconds.
With 9 kilometres to go, Jeremy Roy of FDJ was in the breakaway action and was followed by four riders, which included Blel Kadri (Ag2r La Mondiale), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM), Imanol Erviti (Movistar) and Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
In the last 4 kilometres, Alberto Contador tried his best to take a lead, but was unable to maintain his pace and with the help of BMC racing team Cadel crossed the finish line ahead of other cyclists.
Thor Hushovd took the overall lead with a total time of 13 hours, 58 minutes and 25 seconds. The stage winner, Cadel, was the runner-up with a difference of 1 second and Frank Schleck of Leopard Trek finished third with 4 seconds behind Thor.
Thor told the media, "I really had to fight, I dug so deep to stay with the climbers. I'm really happy I managed to keep the yellow jersey. What the team has done until now is incredible. It's a dream start and it's not stopping. We have to keep on going."
The next stage will start in Carhaix and end in Cap Fréhel. All the riders will cover the distance of 158 kilometres.
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