TdF: Cadel Evans holds off a closing Alberto Contador to take Stage 4

Cadel Evans claimed his first stage of the 2011 Tour de France on the Mûr-de-Bretagne, by the smallest of margins over Alberto Contador.

It nearly wasn’t to be for the Australian, who had to change bikes with 15 kilometres to go and had to be paced back on by his team, after problems with his rear wheel. The peloton caught the breakaway, which had been away from the start, with just over 3 km to go. With that job dealt with, it was the GC contenders who took to the front and began to play mind games with each other.



Evans was joined by Contador, stage favourite Philip Gilbert and teammate Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Frank Schleck and Alexander Vinokorov. Several of the riders took their chance to drop the group, but the decisive move wasn’t made until the final few hundred metres. Evans followed a Contador attempt and was followed by the Spaniard. Contador began to come back, in the final metres, and it seemed he thought he’d one the stage, but after a tense wait Evans was announced as the winner.

Although he didn’t bring himself any closer to the yellow jersey, with Hushovd putting in a stunning performance, Contador has taken eight seconds out of main rival Andy Schleck. It wasn’t the best finish for Andy, who also lost time to his older brother Frank. Yesterday’s second place rider Romain Feillu also suffered bike problems, a couple of kilometres down the road from Evans. The Vacansoleil team couldn’t quite manage the slick change over, that BMC did, leaving Feillu a tough job to get back on the group.

The yellow jersey holder may not have changed, but things have really moved around behind him in the GC. Cadel Evans has moved in to second place, only one second behind Hushovd, and Frank Schleck takes third, four seconds down.

Rainy conditions caused a little bit of havoc at the start, with a few riders hitting the deck before the race even left the neutral zone. Once they had passed the official start, it wasn’t long before a few plucky riders made a breakaway. The group managed to pull out a gap of just over four minutes, but they were finally caught with less than four km to go. As the gap came down a couple of the riders attempted to go it alone, but it wasn’t to be for the five riders.

Jurgen Ven de Walle of Omega-Pharma Lotto became the first rider to withdraw from this year’s Tour, after a crash on stage one. Ven de Walle hasn’t had much luck in the Tour de France and was the first rider to withdraw from the 2009 race.

Stage 5 goes from Carhaix to Cap Fréhel with one category four climb, at the start, but should prove to be one for the sprinters.