THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Hushovd wins Stage 4; Cancellara holds lead
Two days after being caught behind the mass pileup on the run into Ghent, Thor Hushovd had a much better view of the finish line on Wednesday. Bolstered by a blistering leadout from Crédit Agricole teammate Julian Dean, Norway's No. 1 cycling star was first across the line in Joigny on stage 4 of the Tour de France.
Second place went to South African speedster Robbie Hunter, who just missed nipping Hushovd with a desperate bike throw at the line, then shook his right fist in disgust. Hushovd saw the Barloworld rider coming, glancing right just before raising his arms in triumph, knowing he'd finally earned victory No. 1 of what has been a lackluster 2007 campaign. It was also Hushovd's fifth Tour stage win. A year ago he earned bookend victories, taking the prologue and the finale in Paris.
Oscar Freire (Rabobank) was third on the 193km stage from Villers-Cotterêts to Joigny, which the field covered in 4:37:47.
"I've had a lot of problems at the start of the year," Hushovd told TV reporters after the stage. "Today Julian did an amazing job for me. He had the power and that's what I needed to win."
Indeed, in a chaotic final kilometer New Zealand's reigning national champion cleared a path for Hushovd, shooting left out of the bunch and cranking up the speed with 450 meters to go. Hushovd tucked into Dean's slipstream, biding his time for the final 200 meters. Finally the Norwegian came around Dean's left side, then traced a clear path to the line. Hunter managed was closing on Hushovd with 50 meters to go, but the Barloworld rider just came up short in what would have been his and his wild-card team’s first-ever Tour stage win.
Expected contenders Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) and Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) were non-factors, placing eighth and 16th respectively.
"It was very chaotic with riders going in every direction," lamented Boonen, who maintained his hold on the green jersey. "I couldn't move up and then there was a corner at 500 meters that's not in the [race] book. We had to brake there and that killed us."
McEwen admitted before the stage that he was still feeling the effects of his stage 2 crash.
In the overall standings, Hushovd's 20-second time bonus for the stage win pushed him to second overall, 29 seconds back of Fabian Cancellara (CSC). Astana's Andreas Klöden is third, at 0:33, with George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) the top American, sitting fifth at 0:43.
Wednesday's stage kicked off at a leisurely 1 p.m. under overcast skies in Villers-Cotterêts. The early going was reminiscent of Tuesday's snail-pace ride, but things picked up at the 22km mark when the current KoM combatants shot out of the bunch to chase points at the top of the Cat. 4 Côte de Veuilly-la-Poterie.
David Millar (Saunier Duval-Prodir) was the prime aggressor, with Liquigas's Aleksandre Kuschynski and polka-dot-jersey owner Stéphane Augé (Cofidis) joining the fray. With Millar digging hard at the front, Augé dropped off halfway up the climb. But Kuschynski came around the Scot, stealing the first-place points.
The prominent break of the day took off at the 33km mark, with Frenchman Matthieu Sprick (Bouygues Telecom) initiating an attack that was quickly joined by Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), Gorka Verduga (Euskaltel), Christian Knees (Milram) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank). They had a minute's advantage 5km later, and by the 53km mark it was 3:30, with the trailing peloton settling into a comfortable pace.
Chavanel grabbed the first-place points on the second climb, the Cat. 4 Côte de Doucy at 62.5km, with the breakaway's lead over the bunch rising to 3:50.
For the third straight day, rubber left the road on several occasions. The worst pileup ended Spaniard Xabier Zandio's (Caisse d'Epargne) Tour. He suffered a broken collarbone, becoming the third rider to drop out of the race, reducing the field to 186.
A half hour later there was another mishap, with Staf Scheirlinckx (Cofidis) and Matteo Tosatto (Quick Step-Innergetic) both sliding off the road. Neither was injured and both were quickly back in the field.
Back in the bunch, yellow-jersey holder Cancellara ordered his CSC teammates to pick up the pace at the front, intent on maintaining his GC lead for at least another day. After peaking at four minutes, the gap from the front five to the peloton was down to 2:25 with 115km covered.
At the final KoM, the Cat. 4 Côte de Bel-Air, Chavanel looked to have a clear shot at the first-place points, but backed off in deference to his teammate Augé. By finishing second Chavanel stayed one point behind Augé, allowing him another day in the red-and-white polka-dot climber's jersey.
With 33km to go the gap was down to 1:41, with the sprinters' teams aiding CSC in the methodical reeling in of the five escapees. The Danish team was clearly hurt by the presence of Chavanel up the road, who by threatening Cancellara's hold on the overall lead kept the CSC domestiques at the front longer than they would have liked.
At the 144km mark, Flecha scored his third intermediate-sprint win, bringing his day’s bonus-time haul to 18 seconds. The group of five quickly reorganized, but with the peloton closing fast it was only a matter of time before they were swallowed up.
As the field rolled under the 25km banner, the gap was down to 55 seconds, with Lampre joining the pacemaking and CSC finally moving off the front.
Up in the break, Milram's Knees took a flyer with 23.5km to go. The former bronze medalist in the world junior time-trial championship didn't get far, and the five riders were back together a minute later.
With 26.4km to go the gap was down to a minute, and the outcome of the five-man break's long day in the saddle was inevitable.
Knees made a final charge with 8.4km, splitting up the front group. Flecha was the only one to hang on, but moments later, with 6.5km to go, the duo sat up, shook hands and watched the sprinters' teams speed by.
From there the end-game jockeying began, as the field rocketed toward the downhill finish in Joigny. McEwen sent teammate Johan Van Summeren to the front, and the burly Belgian kept things under control until the 2km mark. But the pocket rocket didn't have the legs Wednesday, fading in the final kilometer.
Hushovd had no such problems. After riding the backs of French teammates William Bonnet and Sebastien Hinault into the final kilometer, Hushovd hooked onto Dean’s wheel for the drive to the finish.
“In a sprint I don't check out my rivals,” Hushovd said. “I have total faith in Julian Dean. All I do is stay on his wheel, that's the only thing I'm focused on. He launched a really fast sprint at 450 meters, and then he pulled off with about 200 to go. Then I finished it off with a good sprint myself."
Dean deflected the praise, saying he was just doing his job for the team. “It restores our confidence. Hopefully we can get another one along the way," said the former regular on the U.S. criterium circuit, who rode for Shaklee and Mercury before making the jump to the big time with U.S. Postal and then Crédit Agricole.
Hushovd came into the 2007 season with aspirations of success in the one-day classics. But he fell ill on the eve of Milan-San Remo and never got back on track.
“It's a big relief winning today," he admitted. "After San Remo it compromised everything.”
Next up at the Tour de France is Stage 5's 182.5km trip from Chablis to Autun. This will likely be the most decisive stage of the opening week on a route that traverses the Chablis wine region and Morvan hills on its way through Burgundy. This day will have a Liège-Bastogne-Liège look to it, with one Cat. 2, three Cat. 3 and four Cat. 4 climbs.
The narrow back roads are punctuated with frequent short, steep climbs and twisting descents, continuing all the way to the twisting 6km descent preceding the finish in Autun. The last time the Tour came to Autun was 1998, on the third-to-last day, when a marathon, mainly flat 242km stage saw a 13-man break arrive 19 minutes ahead of the peloton. The stage winner was Sweden's Magnus Bäckstedt, who now races for Liquigas.
The difficulty of the stage is custom-made for classics riders like Spain's Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Épargne), German Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) and Luxembourg's Fränk Schleck (CSC). Don't expect to see sprinters contesting the finish and don't be surprised if the yellow jersey changes hands.
VeloNews editorial director John Wilcockson contributed to this report.
Stage 4 — top 10
1. Thor Hushovd (N), Crédit Agricole, 193 km in 4:37:47
2. Robert Hunter (RSA), Barloworld
3. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank
4. Erik Zabel (G), Milram
5. Danilo Napolitano (I), Lampre-Fondital
6. Gert Steegmans (B), Quick Step-Innergetic
7.Robert Förster (G), Gerolsteiner
8.Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic
9. Sebastian Chavanel (F) Française des Jeux
10. Mark Cavendish (GB), T-Mobile, all s.t.
Overall
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), CSC, 19:49:55
2. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Crédit Agricole, at 0:29
3. Andreas Klöden (G), Astana, at 0:33
4. David Millar (GB), Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 0:41
5.George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, at 0:43
6. Bradley Wiggins (GB), Cofidis, s.t.
7. Sylvain Chavanel (F), Cofidis, at 0:44
8. Vladimir Gusev (Rus), Discovery Channel, at 0:45
9. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, at 0:46
10. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Caisse d’Erpargne, s.t.
To see how the stage developed, simply click here to open our Live Update Window.
