TOUR DE FRANCE \ Fourth stage

A brief look at the fourth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday:

Stage: The week’s final sprint took riders on a 119.9-mile route from Villers-Cotterets to Joigny.

Winner: Thor Hushovd of Norway. Robert Hunter of South Africa was second, and Oscar Freire of Spain was third.

Yellow Jersey: Fabian Cancellara of Team CSC, leads Hushovd by 29 seconds and Andreas Kloeden by 33 seconds.

Quote of the Day: “We said at the start of the stage that if we win, it’s a Chablis. And if we lose it’s a Chablis anyway,” Hushovd’s teammate Christophe Le Mevel said on the team’s plan to take in some of the region’s fine wines.

Next stage: Today’s fifth stage is a medium mountain stage taking riders on a 113.4-mile trek from Chablis to Autun. It features climbs of varying difficulty, but nothing steeper than a category 2.

Associated Press