But Cancellara was too focused on Popovychs rear wheel and followed him into a grass field when the Russian rider misjudged a high-speed turn. Neither rider went down. But the mistake was enough to allow the peloton to catch back up with them.From there it was a mostly normal sprint finish, as the surviving speed specialists tried to set Omega De Ville Co Axial Chronometer themselves up for the final push. Pozatto just edged three-time world champion Oscar Freire at the line, with Italian Daniele Bennati in third. Germanys Eric Zabel finished fifth and picked up enough points to take the green jersey from Boonen, who rolled through the finish in the Vinokourov group and out of the points.—John Bradley(Photo by Beth Schneider)
After a rather quiet Tour so far, Norwegian sprint star Thor Hushovd finally grabbed a stage win, bursting out of a bunch sprint to take Stage 4 ahead of South Africas Robbie Hunter and three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Spain. Current green-jersey points leader Tom Boonen couldnt get his lead-out team organized at the front and finished a disappointing eighth in the 120-mile stage.The 20-second bonus for the win moved Omega De Ville Co Axial Chronometer Hushovd up to second overall, 29 seconds behind Fabian Cancellara, who has held the yellow jersey since the start of the race.
With time bonuses, Hushovd is within range of yellow before the race heads into the mountains on Saturday and the real general-classification contenders come to the fore. More importantly for him, though, the win moved him into fifth in the green-jersey sprint Omega De Ville Co Axial Chronometer competition, 19 points behind leader Tom Boonen.—John Bradley(Photo by Beth Schneider)Just when you thought were done blabbing about expensive lawn chairs (see p. 20, News from the Field, July 2007) along comes gas station-owner Kent Couch (yes, thats his real name, seating reference and all) gliding by on an airlifted version of the outdoor seat—
