New Delhi: Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara continues to hold the overall lead at the Tour de France for a fifth straight day but the honours on the day belonged to Thor Hushovd of Norway who won the 193 kilometer fourth stage in a time of four hours, 37 minutes and 47 seconds..
It was a tight sprint finish on a relatively flat stage from Villers-Cotterets to Joigny but Hushovd managed to edge out South Africa's Robert Hunter and Spain's Oscar Freire.
Hushovd was the winner of the green jersey awarded to the Tour's best sprinter in 2005.
With the win Hushovd has jumped to the second spot from ninth and also received bonus points. He is now just 29 seconds behind Cancellara. Andreas Kloeden of Germany, who ended as the runner-up to Lance Armstrong in 2004, is third, 33 seconds behind.
On Thursday the Tour features eight medium-grade climbs from the Burgundy town of Chablis to Autun.
Though Cancellara is leading but is likely to face tough competition from Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov, Kloeden, Levi Leipheimer, Cadel Evans, Denis Menchov, Alejandro Valverde and Oscar Pereiro.
However, with many strong climbers in the race, Cancellara knows that it won't be easy to hold on to his lead.
"For me, when I get into the mountains, it's sure that it's finished," Cancellara was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
The race has already ended for some riders like Spain's Xavier Zandio and France's Remy Di Gregorio. While Zandio suffered a fracture in his right collarbone in Wednesday's crash, Gregorio broke his right elbow.
A total of four riders have pulled out, leaving 185 riders left.
The Tour, in its 94th edition, is taking place as cycling has suffered huge blows over the last year because of doping allegations involving some of the sport's biggest names.
Would-be title contenders like Italy's Ivan Basso and American Tyler Hamilton have been forced to sit out over doping probes, and few experts believe that the peloton - or rider pack - is fully clean.
The 2006 champion, Floyd Landis, is also out, and awaiting an arbitration panel's verdict whether he can keep the title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone in Stage 17 last year.
The International Cycling Union, or UCI, has publicly sought to crack down.
All Tour racers signed a new UCI anti-doping charter in time for Saturday's start, saying they are not involved in doping and promising to submit DNA samples to authorities for a vast probe called Operation Puerto, which erupted in May 2006. Cyclists also had to agree to pay a year's salary on top of a two-year ban if caught doping.
The UCI this week said it wants team managers and staff to sign a similar pledge by August 1 - three days after the Tour ends.
(With inputs from Associated Press)
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