Racing | Tour De France | Stage 4

17:48 CEST   

Thanks for following the first Tour de France time trial on with us. We'll be back again tomorrow with stage 5 from Cholet to Chateauroux, the longest stage in 2008. Anther sprinter's stage, if the bunch can control the breakaways. Until then, au revoir!

17:46 CEST   

A Frenchman lost the lead, a German gets it - and the Swiss time trial favourite did not live up to his expectations. What do we conclude? That this Tour de France is full of surprises, and definitely very open.

Menchov and Valverde limited their losses on Tour favourite Evans. Cunego is 1'05 back. Ricco lost out on GC.

17:36 CEST   

Schumacher's average speed was 49.534 km/h. Not as fast as we could have expected in this rather short time trial. Was it just the parcours, and the wind, or may we hope that the peloton is really riding cleaner than in previous years?

Paolo Longo comes in, clocking 40'16. This is our provisional Top 3:

General classification after stage 4
 
1 Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner)
2 Kim Kirchen (Columbia) 0.12
3 David Millar (Garmin Chipotle - H30)

17:32 CEST   

Will Frischkorn has arrived: 39'45.

17:30 CEST   

Feillu is sprintng, doing all he can. But it'll be in vain against such a strong performance that Schumacher - and some others - put on today. He passes under the 5km to go-banner.

17:29 CEST   

Kim Kirchen comes in - a brilliant performance by the Luxemburger. He clocks the same time as Millar.

Valverde finishes after 37'18 minutes. He lost 1'07 on Evans - not too bad!

17:24 CEST   

At the moment, German Stefan schumacher has won the stage and will take the yellow jersey, too.

Feillu is gooone...

17:20 CEST   

Ohhh... Feillu in trouble on that climb. His gear is too big. He's glued to the tarmac. Poor him.

17:19 CEST   

And Millar beats Evans by a few seconds, still: 36'02! That's an excellent result for the Garmin rider!

17:17 CEST   

Evans bites his teeth... second behind Schumacher at 36'11!