Tour Riders Set for Stage 4
After a crash-ridden start to the Tour de France, the relatively short ride between Cambrai and Reims in northern France on Wednesday will give riders an opportunity to heal their wounds. Sprinters, however, will remain alert to claim the stage win.
Stage 4 is the first stage on this year’s Tour to be ridden entirely in France. Over 153.5km, riders will get a brief respite before continuing between Epernay and Montargis on Thursday’s Stage 5.
After frustrations mounting in the peleton concerning the many crashes so far, the stage is likely to be a refreshingly calm affair.
In particular, riders have voiced complaints over the low quality of the roads in the Netherlands and Belgium in the first two stages, as well as an oil spill from a motorbike that caused many crashes on the slippery surface of Stage 2.
Stage 3, which included seven sections of cobbles, posed another challenge to the riders. The paths were narrow, sometimes not wider than a couple of metres, and riders chose to ride on the dirt beside the cobbles to spare them a jittery ride.
Cervelo TestTeam’s Thor Hushovd, winner of today’s cobbled Stage 3 with a fine sprint finish, will be looking to retain the green jersey he now holds.
Lance Armstrong of Team RadioShack, who turned in a disappointing performance on Tuesday when he suffered a flat tire, will also be looking to improve his overall standing.
The seven-time Tour winner is currently in 18th place, 2 minutes and 30 seconds behind Fabian Canceralla, the Italian time trialist who claimed the yellow jersey for the second time.
Team HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish is another rider who will be looking to get his first stage win on Wednesday. Having crashed twice in the opening two stages, Cavendish recovered from a punctured tire to finish 25th on Tuesday, in the same pack as Armstrong.
Cavendish, a potential contender for the points classification, will have taken note of Hushovd’s finish in Stage 3. Last year, it was Hushovd who claimed the green jersey ahead of Cavendish, who was penalised for having obstructed Norwegian Hushovd during Stage 14.
Team HTC-Columbia, who lost Australian rider Adam Hansen after he crashed out of the Tour during Stage 2 with a broken collar bone, will nonetheless persist in supporting Cavendish in the build-up to his sprint on Wednesday.
Another rider who will be looking to make an impact is Spanish sprinter Oscar Freire, who has been riding with Team RaboBank since 2003. Freire, who won the Tour’s green jersey in 2008, finished 158th in Tuesday’s race, 9 minutes and 49 seconds behind winner Hushovd.
Robbie McEwen, riding for Russian Team Katusha, finished 14th on Tuesday and will be relying on his team’s support to deliver one of his trademark finishes to Stage 4.
Then, of course, we have the contenders for the general classification, who will see Stage 4 as an opportunity to take charge of the overall standings.
Alberto Contador, winner of last year’s Tour and currently in 9th place, will want to make a mark ahead of the climbing stages that begin on Saturday. Alexandre Vinokourov, also of Team Astana, who is currently in 8th place, is another in-form general classification contender.
Andy Schleck, the Swiss general classification rider who finished 5th on Tuesday after an impressive finish, is also 5th overall. Having overcome a crash in Stage 2, Schleck is looking to contend not just for the young riders classification, but for the overall victory as well.
Expected to be a relatively tranquil race, Wednesday’s Stage 4 will have riders eager to show who came out of the turbulent opening stages in best shape.
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