Tour de France 2011: stage four – live! | Barry Glendenning

• Hit F5 for the latest or select the auto-refresh button below • Watch all the video highlights of this year’s race so far • Interactive: check out the stage four route and analysis • Email your thoughts to barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk 1.37pm: Asked for his thoughts on today’s finish at the Mûr-de-Bretagne, Eurosport analyst and Irish cycling legend Sean Kelly declares that “it will be horrible today”. He says the slippery conditions coupled with every single rider’s determination to get up near the front as the peloton enters the town means the potential for carnage is high. He goes on to describe the three ramps that make up the wall, stressing that it’s vital that anyone with serious notions of doing well in this year’s Tour is near the front of the bunch when the peloton hits town. “There’s a lot of little small drags which are energy-sapping in the final stages,” he says. “When you see the wall stretching out in front of you it’s a very impressive sight. There’s no three-kilometre rule today so it’s vital that the main contenders get up the front. Philippe Gilbert is going to have go for this one on the steep section, so calculation is going to be very important.” 1.32pm: “Don’t know if you remember that last year there was a Google maps thingymajig that tracked the live progress of Cav and his team?” writes Kim H. “It occasionally had a strop and refused to display particular riders, but was quite a fun way of following Le Tour and understanding the terrain/distances etc. I haven’t seen any mention of anything similar this year and was wondering whether it has been abandoned?” I do remember the gizmo you speak of, Kim, but don’t know if they’re using it again this year. If they are, you’ll almost certainly find it here ; unfortunately I don’t have time to look for it at the moment. 1.27pm: According to the official Tour website, Jurgen van de Walle from the Omega Paharma-Lotto team has abandoned the race, leaving 197 riders in the race. 1.25pm: After 51km in driving rain, the five-man breakaway are 3min 06sec clear of the peloton, although that gap might close a bit shortly, as one of the escapees has just shooed away the motorcycle camera man in a manner that suggests he’d like some privacy because he needs to take a pee. 1:20pm: “Today’s intermediate sprint is massive for Cavendish,” writes Shriram Jambunathan. “Jose Joaquin Rojas can attempt to get some points at the end of the stage today as well while Farrar and Cavendish shouldn’t get anything. Rojas, if he sprints like yesterday needn’t even win a single stage to be challenging the top favourites for the Green Jersey. Great to see Rojas doing well, Movistar have unfortunately had a traumatic year. The climb resembles a flatter version Mur de Huy, so we should see Gilbert, Evans and Cunego do well. The final 800 metres are pretty flat (I think at 2%).” Weather report: Eurosport’s coverage of today’s stage has just begun, although they’re broadcasting the pre-stage niceties and have yet to cut to my podcasting chum James Richardson, who is once again anchoring their coverage. His chin was decidedly unshaven yesterday – I’m very concerned that he’s letting himself go during the Football Weekly off-season. But I digress … the weather – it’s a horrible day on the Tour, with rain sleeting downwhen the riders set off this morning, rendering the roads so greasy that several riders came a cropper in the neutral zone even before race director Christian Prudhomme had waved the white flag to declare the start of racing. All were able to remount and continue and less than 10km into the stage, Frenchman Jeremy Roy launched his second breakaway of this year’s Tour before the 10-kilometre mark, jumping off the front with Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Euskatel), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Blel Kadri (AG2R). After 45km, they lead the pack by 3min 05sec. Erviti is the virtual race-leader on the road, having started the day less than three minutes down on yellow jersey wearer Thor Hushovd. An email: “Can we all be nice to one another today?” pleads David Moore. “The emails on yesterday’s pedal-by-pedal coverage got so unfriendly I felt like a domestique in the 2009 Astana team.” I must confess that I haven’t read yesterday’s report, so I don’t know what unpleasantness you’re alluding to, David. But rest assured that the spirit of this afternoon’s equivalent will be ultra-jovial … for a while at least. Standings Yellow jersey: Thor Hushovd (Team Garmin-Cervelo) Green jersey: Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) Polka dot jersey: Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) White jersey: Geraint Thomas (Sky Procycling) Click this link to see the full overall standings Today’s stage favourite With Tyler Farrar having won yesterday’s stage for Uncle Sam on Independence Day, today’s uphill finish means stage one winner and Omega Pharma-Lotto rider Philippe Gilbert is the odds-on favourite to win his second stage of the Tour, which would be a very nice present for him today on his 29th birthday. According to the good people at Infostrada Sports , the last rider to celebrate his birthday with a stage win in Le Tour was Erik Zabel, on 7 July 1995. “Since the start of this Tour I’ve worn almost all the jerseys and tomorrow I’ll race with the polka-dot jersey,” said Gilbert yesterday. “It’s a rather beautiful collection. The stage to the Mûr-de-Bretagne is one that I’ve waited a long time for because I think it’s a great stage for me. I hope to win again. It’s likely to be different to the day to Mont des Alouettes because the situation has changed since then … Alberto Contador, for example, has lost some time and he could attempt to make up for that in stage four. He can be an ally for me and it’s possible that I could follow his wheel for a while.” Good afternoon everybody and welcome to our rolling report of Stage 4 of this year’s Tour, in which the riders will themselves roll the 172.5km from Lorient to Mur de Bretagne. According to the indispensable pocket race guide that accompanies the current issue of Cycling Weekly , we can “expect fireworks” on a stage that boasts a stiff uphill finish on the third-category Mur de Bretagne (Breton Wall). “Another uphill finish, but harder than day one,” writes our own William Fotheringham in the Guardian’s marvellous interactive guide to this year’s Tour . “The ‘Wall’ is brutal, one mile long and dead straight. The overall contenders will have to show their strength to ensure they don’t lose seconds that could prove vital in the long term. The fight to hit the climb at the front of the bunch will be hectic and dangerous and a crash or two is inevitable.” You can click on this link to read Will’s report on Stage Three , which was won by Garmin’s American sprinter Tyler Farrar on a day that ended badly for Mark Cavendish – the Manx Missile was stripped of the points he won in the intermediate sprint after clashing with his rival Thor Hushovd in the lead-out. “Just heard that Thor’s offered to take the punishment solely,” Cavendish tweeted yesterday afternoon. “What a true gentleman. I reckon it won’t change fuck-all though. But thank you.” Tour de France 2011 Tour de France Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.