McEwen gets out of jail to steal Saint-Quentin victory

AUSTRALIAN Robbie McEwen stole through to claim a sprint finish win on the fourth stage of the Tour de France in Saint-Quentin yesterday as world champion Tom Boonen held on to the yellow jersey.

A five-man breakaway of Egoi Martinez, Bradley Wiggins, Christophe Mengin, Laurent Lefevre and Cedric Coutouly had led for much of the day after going clear after 20 kilometres but, as with the previous stages, they were slowly reeled in by the chasing peloton before McEwen stormed through the field to take the victory.

Boonen holds a one-second lead over Michael Rogers at the top of the leaderboard at the end of stage four, while Jerome Pineau retained the King of the Mountains polka-dot jersey.