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TDF v PCM - Stage 4
Stage 4 - Villers-Cotterêts to Joigny
Matthieu Sprick (Bouygues Telecom). He was joined by Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank), Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) and Christian Knees (Milram) formed the day's breakaway. They were caught with 7km and Hushovd took a tight victory over Robbie Hunter.
1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 4.37.47 (41.69 km/h) 2 Robert Hunter (RSA) Barloworld 3 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank 4 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram 5 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 6 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic 7 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 8 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic 9 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux 10 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile Team
SNDeluxe
The break failed and it came down to a very tight sprint. 9 riders were right up there and the top 3 seemed unseperable. A very close look at the photo finish revealed Boonen as the winner. 1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 4h22'43 2 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. 3 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t. 4 Francisco Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t. 5 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t. 6 Robert Hunter BARLOWORLD s.t. 7 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 8 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t. 9 Oscar Freire RABOBANK s.t. 10 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t. 11 Danilo Napolitano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. 13 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t.
GCT
David Millar and Fabian Wegmann were the breakaway's strongest riders, but they were caught. In the sprint the Yellow jersey Hushovd held the ideal position with 1km to go, followed by Zabel and Freire. Zabel went first and looked to have it in the bag but a very fast finishing Freire stole victory from him. Millar takes over the KoM jersey. 1 Oscar Freire RABOBANK 4h23'20 2 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t. 3 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t. 4 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t. 5 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 6 Francisco Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t. 7 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t. 8 Robert Forster GEROLSTEINER s.t. 9 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t. 10 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. 13 Robert Hunter BARLOWORLD s.t. 34 Danilo Napolitano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. Real Name
Continuing the Brit attacks was Wiggins, in another ill-fated move. CSC created the best train for the sprint, but rounding the final corner, O;Grady was already fading a little as Bennati and Boonen steemed through. Boonen was obviously stronger, and now takes the Yellow jersey. Further back Julian Dean took down Vaitkus, Kirchen, Steegmens, Degano, Kirchen and Ballan. Noone looked to be seriously hurt though. 1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 4h27'01 2 Oscar Freire RABOBANK s.t. 3 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. 4 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t. 5 Francisco Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t. 6 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 7 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t. 8 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t. 9 Robert Hunter BARLOWORLD s.t. 10 Fred Rodriguez PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t. 15 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t. 20 Danilo Napolitano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
