Hushovd Wins 4th Stage Of Tour de France

Wednesday, July 11th 2007, 6:58 am

By: News On 6

JOIGNY, France (AP) _ Thor Hushovd of Norway won the fourth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday, and Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara kept the overall lead for a fifth straight day.

Hushovd won in a sprint at the end of the mostly flat 119.9-mile ride from Villers-Cotterets to Joigny.

``Everything took place superbly well,'' said Hushovd, who finished in 4 hours, 37 minutes, 47 seconds for his fifth Tour stage win. ``I'm too happy.''

Robert Hunter of South Africa was second, and Oscar Freire of Spain was third. They and the trailing pack, which included Cancellara, finished with the same time as Hushovd.

Cancellara is the only rider to wear the race leader's yellow jersey this year. He won the prologue and the third stage and leads the overall standings with a time of 19:49:55.

Hushovd, who earned bonus points for Wednesday's stage win, is second overall and trails Cancellara by 29 seconds. Andreas Kloeden of Germany is third, 33 seconds behind.

Xavier Zandio dropped out after breaking his right collarbone in a crash early in the stage. The Spaniard is the third rider to drop out from the Tour due to injury.

There are 186 riders left in the race.