Two-time runner-up Cadel Evans of BMC held off a late charge from Alberto Contador to claim a prestigious victory on the fourth stage of the Tour de France Tuesday. Norwegian Thor Hushovd, tipped to lose the yellow jersey after the brutal two-kilometre finishing climb at the Mur de Bretagne, held on to the race lead after the 172.5 km ride from Lorient to here.
Hushovd, of the Garmin-Cervelo team, upset predictions to finish sixth on the stage and thus keep his 01sec lead on Evans intact ahead of Wednesday's fifth stage to Cap Frehel. Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert, who won the opening stage on a similar finish at Mont des Alouettes, was expected for a repeat on his 29th birthday. But on a finish designed for the 'punchers' who excel in the hilly one-day classics, he could only finish in fifth place as Evans continued his perfect start to the race.
Evans's American team-mate George Hincapie took over pacing duties prior to the climb, but once at the foot of the steep 2km ascent all the favourites were bunched together. Reigning champion Contador, who has had a disastrous start to the Tour, kept at the front in a bid to avoid losing any more time to his key rivals for the yellow jersey. Despite the Saxo Bank climber taking things in hand when he moved to the front of a rapidly dwindling group 1.3km from the finish, Evans and Gilbert never looked threatened by the Spaniard.
Evans edged just a bike length in front of the group inside the final few hundred metres as the climb petered out, with Contador on his wheel and Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov just behind. Contador made a bid to pass Evans metres before the finish line, only for the Australian to win by a few centimetres to claim his first win of this year's race.
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