We are in Luxembourg for the start of the fourth stage which will finish in Liege, Belgium. Today we should see again the puncheurs in action as this is the last stage of the race that is suited for them.
Boom is the current leader of the race, but Devolder is only 12 seconds away, with the previous leader, Samuel Sanchez, one of the big favorites to take today's stage, 25 seconds behind the Dutch rider.
Today's route also contains the last categorized climbs of the race, which means this is the last day when Nolf needs to defend the jersey got in the first stage, but also if he loses it he won't get a chance to get it back
In the very first kilometer of the stage, four riders attacked and got away in the day's main breakaway. But the four stayed the entire stage split into 2 groups: Tschopp (Starbucks) and Timofeev (Wikipedia) in the first group, with Gastauer (Vesuvio) and Wyss (Domina) in the other one
After grabbing the first intermediate sprint of the race, not only of the stage,
Tschopp took the first summit of the day as well, but neither of the escapes were a threat for Nolf's polka dot jersey
On the second climb, Tschopp dropped Timofeev, while Gastauer and Wyss were brought back in the pack. The good news for Nolf was though that none of his rivals got any points at the summit and he now only needs to finish the race to win the 'mountains' classification
Soon after the climb ended, we had the first big moves of the day with Van Garderen and Devolder attacking from the pack and approaching to the last escapes left on the road
They were joined by three other riders: Posthuma, Vanendert and Cancellara, who seems to be doing a great job on the hills which puts him in the driving seat for the overall win
The yellow jersey wearer, Lars Boom, also joined the attacking group a few moments later, bringing Ten Dam and Roelandts with him as well. But those two weren't the only ones that followed Boom, the whole pack coming after him, which meant the end of this move. The early breakaway was also caught right at the foot of the final climb
On the final climb of the stage/race Luis Leon Sanchez made an acceleration and took the lead, with Ballan, Devolder, Cancellara, Fiedler and Gautier trying to match him
But the Energie rider looked too strong and passed the summit in a solo lead, even though his advantage wasn't a great one and anyone could have reduced it in the following kilometers
The first riders to do so were Bakelants and Van Garderen, who joined the Spaniard to enter together in the final 20 kilometers of the stage, but the other big guns weren't far away either
And while coming very close to reach the last 15 kilometers, they were caught by Grivko, Cancellara, Ballan and Kiserlovski. This wasn't enough for Cancellara though, who made one of his classic accelerations to take the race on his own
The Swiss seems to enjoy riding by himself more than anyone and under the 10 kilometers banner he had almost one minute over his closest chasers
The group from where Cancellara previous attacked was caught by the pack and it was now Samuel Sanchez and Tom Boonen leading the chase behind the Carmeuse rider, with the pack not far behind and a lot of things still ready to change
Cancellara entered the last 5 kilometers of the race in the lead as well, but his gap was definitely smaller now, with Samuel Sanchez still in second place. Boonen was gone though, with L.L Sanchez, Van Garderen, Devolder and Bakelants being very close to join the Festina rider
The hills are definitely not the best terrain for Cancellara even though the Swiss Champion had a superb ride today and with 2 km to go, the Swiss was passed by the two Sanchez, who were heading together towards the finish
Under the one km banner, Luis Leon was leading the sprint for the stage win, with Samuel keeping it very close, while Bakelants and Van Garderen have caught Cancellara as well
The 2 Sanchez were caught with 500 meters before the line, which gave us a group of 5 riders ready to fight for the stage win, even though Cancellara seemed very close to stop pedaling rather than going for the victory
Luis Leon Sanchez lost everything in the final meters and wasn't even able to get into the bonification places, which gave us the same podium as in the first stage. Van Garderen got it this time at the photo-finish, in front of S. Sanchez and Bakelants
Devolder finished 6th, 35 seconds behind the winner, but he is now behind Cancellara, in the overall rankings, who got the same time as Van Garderen and is looking very good before the cobbled stage and the final time - trial
Boom finished with Ballan, but they lost more than 1 minute to the leading group, which means that Sammy Sanchez is back in the yellow jersey and Festina have again two distinctive jerseys
Boonen finished 1 minute and 27 seconds behind Van Garderen, 12 seconds before the rest of the pack and with the cobbled stage tomorrow he should be able to aim for a top 5 at the very least now
