Tour de France- Stage 4

Hushovd, the big Norwegian gear masher, pulled off a great win today. Even though it puts me in the whole points-wise, I'm really glad to see Thor get his first win of this season. The poor guy was winless until today, so the win could not have come at a better time for him and you could clearly see the happiness on his face as he crossed the line, arms up high, pumping the air.

Photo-AFP/ CyclingNews.com

A dangerous looking break managed to stay out nearly all day, though not as close as the bonehead break of yesterday. With less than 30km raced, a small group got away and then with less than 5km remaining, the break was caught. Juan Antonio Flecha of Rabobank was the real danger man- not to the GC, but to the break, as he is a great classics rider and is very strong in a small break. As the break was getting closer, I thought for sure he would get away for the win- like what I was hoping Schumacher would do. Oh well, better luck tomorrow...

Tomorrow's stage is a pretty tough one, the hardest one so far this Tour. There are several categorized climbs, 4 category 4, 3 category 3 and 1 category 2 climb. It's been compared to Liege-Bastogne-Liege, so expect breaks all day long and a likely winner from a break and no field sprint. I'm picking a tough guy to win the stage and hopefully I won't be let down. I'm picking Stuart O'Grady, who wants to redeem himself after his disastrous opening prologue, and also Michael Boogerd. Boogie is retiring after this season and this is his last Tour. He'd like a win and he certainly could pull one off- a fitting end to a great career. So we'll see what happens.

Until tomorrow...

Tim