McEwen gets out of jail to steal Saint-Quentin victory
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.
McEwen took the sprinters green jersey off Boonen, although it was Egoi Martinez who picked up maximum points from yesterdays three sprints.
Wiggins, Mengin and Coutouly were the first of the breakaway group to be pulled back, leaving Martinez and Lefevre in the lead until they were also predictably caught as the pack rounded the final corner.
Boonen’s Quick Step team, Erik Zabel’s Milram and Thor Hushovd’s Credit Agricole controlled the peloton in the closing stages as McEwen’s Belgian team-mate Gert Steegmans took the role of the Australian’s lead-up man in Fred Rodriguez’s absence.
Rodriguez had crashed out of the race along with Erik Dekker and Alejandro Valverde in Tuesday’s stage.
Hushovd, Boonen, Alessandro Ballan, Juan Antonio Flecha pushed for the line in the final 500m, which saw Julian Dean fall in the centre of the leading group. But it was McEwen who powered through, showcasing his stunning finishing speed to beat Isaac Galvez and Oscar Freire over the line to win the 207km section between Huy and Saint Quentin.
“The plan was to do it exactly as we did, and plans don’t always work in the Tour de France, but it went right today,” McEwen said.
“I told [Steegmans] that he had to imagine that 200 to go was his finish line. I died a thousand deaths on the way to the line, but I made it. At 200m, I launched my sprint. On the rise to the finish, with 100m to go, I thought I was going to die — the acid in the leg muscles was terrible — but it worked.
“It’s not about the numbers, this one is special for Freddie Rodriguez, I dedicate this one to Fred. Today was a perfect example of my kind of sprint, also a little bit uphill.
“I’m not even thinking about Paris. There’s a Belgian saying that you don’t get two without three, so I hope so,” added McEwen.
The Australian leads Boonen by 11 points in the race for the green jersey, while Hushovd sits a further three behind.
Zabel suffered a puncture in the final four kilometres, conceding yet another stage to McEwen in the race for the green jersey.
“The main goal was to catch one day or more on the green jersey so after yesterday I was very optimistic, only nine points to catch up,” said Zabel. “Now it’s a big difference in the green jersey, 40 points. It’s more than one stage and I’ve been long enough in the business to know that it’s more than difficult.”
Today’s fifth stage takes the riders over the 225km from Beauvais to Caen.
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