Stage 4

The road

At the start

Yellow up for grabs on the Mûr

Thor Hushovd still leads, with David Millar level on time and Cadel Evans one second down, and José Joaquín Rojas has taken green off Philippe Gilbert. Today finishes on the Mûr-de-Bretagne, 1.7 kilometres of wall the locals call the Breton Alpe d'Huez. It is the kind of finish where a sprinter's yellow jersey usually changes hands, and where the puncheurs and the climbers get their first proper look at one another.

How it was won

1. 193 km to go

   Hoogerland takes the point

   On the Côte de Laz the hyper-aggressive Dutchman jumps his four breakaway companions for the single mountain point on offer, and nobody challenges him for it.

2. 280 km to go

   And the sprint as well

   A few kilometres later Johnny Hoogerland wins the intermediate at Spézet ahead of Roy, underlining his range. Two minutes back Farrar nips through a small gap for sixth, and Rojas takes seventh to hold green by a whisker.

3. 332 km to go

   Splits in the wet woods

   The road twists through dense woodland on wet tarmac and the pace snaps the bunch. Basso is caught out for the second day running and Evans has a mechanical at the worst moment; forty riders chase back together.

4. 48 km to go

   Izagirre's last throw

   Forty seconds, seven and a half kilometres to go. Izagirre attacks the remains of the break and Hoogerland goes with him, and George Hincapie brings the BMC line up behind them.

5. 52 km to go

   Onto the Mûr

   One thousand seven hundred metres of wall they call the Breton Alpe d'Huez, and the favourites arrive at the bottom of it in a single line. The attacks come in a flurry.

6. 6At the line

   Evans by the width of a tyre

   Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador come to the line together and neither of them knows. The Spaniard half-raises an arm; the Australian says afterwards he could not see who had won. The photograph shows a tyre and a deep-section rim between them. Hushovd, sixth on a climb he has no business being on, keeps yellow for a third day.

The result