Wiggins shows himself to be part of the action

Cycling Tour de FranceSince Bradley Wiggins won gold, silver and bronze medals on the track at the Athens Olympics there has been much speculation among British fans about whether he will manage to use his considerable physical potential to forge a successful career in the far less structured and far less predictable sphere of road racing.

Even before he made his debut in this Tour, Wiggins was talking about the need to get involved in the racing rather than merely observe proceedings. Yesterday he figured at the head of affairs for more than 100 miles in a five-man escape, and even though the quintet were swept up shortly before the finish, where the Australian Robbie McEwen won for the second time in four days, the experience could prove a crucial boost to the tall Londoner's confidence.

"I was pleased to be up the road," he said afterwards. "I've shown I'm part of the event and on a day like today you never know. If we had not been riding into a headwind we might have got 10 or 12 minutes' lead and stayed away to the finish. I said to a few people this morning that I was going to give it a nudge and it worked. It's my role to do this sort of thing until we get to the mountains and it was a couple of hours for Cofidis (the team sponsor) on live television."

Wiggins was unfortunate the quintet included the Spaniard Egoi Martinez, who rides for Lance Armstrong's old team Discovery and was lying just 28 seconds behind the race leader.

Tom Boonen's team left them hanging just far enough ahead to be reeled in before the finish.

Such escapes are as integral a part of daily life in the first part of the Tour as are the crashes that, yesterday, gave another little scare to the Spanish climber Iban Mayo with 10 miles remaining and, at the finish, left New Zealand's Julian Dean covered in grazes. The escapes tend to involve riders of teams who do not have an established sprinter, and the collective hope is always the same: that, one day, the sprinters' teams will miscalculate and a stage win will suddenly result.

The other man "showing his jersey" yesterday was Boonen, who had his chance to parade across his native Belgium in yellow. Boonen has won 17 races this season and his consistency has given him the lead, but he does not have the speed to win a stage in this Tour, and yesterday he was powerless when McEwen sprang out of the bunch on the uphill finish in the shadow of the great basilica here.

As the stage progressed from the Ardennes plateau to the plains, green valleys and red-brick houses of Picardy, the Belgian flags were replaced by forests of tricolours, and the blue of France's football team became prominent among the spectators.

The biggest banners of the day were 30 feet high, depicted Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane and were stretched out in a field for the television helicopters to spot, a reminder that, as in July 1998 and 2000, the Tour is not the main sports event in Gallic minds at the moment.

STAGE FOUR

Huy (Belgium) - Saint-Quentin, 207km

1 R McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 4hrs 59mins 50secs, 2 I Galvez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears, 3 O Freire (Spa) Rabobank, 4 T Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole, 5 T Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step-Innergetic, 6 D Kopp (Ger) Gerolsteiner, 7 D Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital, 8 F Ventoso (Spa) Saunier Duval, 9 M Albasini (Ita) Liquigas, 10 B Eisel (Aut) Francaise Des Jeux, 11 J Casper (Fra) Cofidis, 12 M Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile, 13 A Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom, 14 G Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel, 15 L Brochard (Fra) Bouygues Telecom, 16 A Coyot (Fra) Cofidis, 17 S Garzelli (Ita) Liquigas, 18 Y Popovyvch (Ukr) Discovery Channel, 19 A Kloden (Ger) T-Mobile, 20 G Steegmans (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto all at same time.

General classification: 1 T Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step-Innergetic 19hrs 52mins 13secs, 2 M Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile at 0.01, 3 G Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel at 0.05, 4 T Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 0.07, 5 E Martinez (Spa) Discovery Channel at 0.10, 6 R McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto at 0.12, 7 P Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel at 0.15, 8 D Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital at same time, 9 F Landis (USA) Phonak at 0.16, 10 V Karpets (Rus) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears at 0.17, 11 S Gonchar (Ukr) T-Mobile, 12 M Kessler (Ger) T-Mobile both at same time, 13 C Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto at 0.20, 14 C Moreau (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance at same time.

Points classification: 1 McEwen 100, 2 Boonen 89, 3 Hushovd 86 4 Bennati 85, 5 Freire 80, 6 Zabel 59, 7 Paolini, 8 Eisel 52, 9 Rogers 50, Galvez 50, Casper 50.

Mountain classification: 1 J Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom) 21, 2 D De la Fuente (Spa) Saunier Duval 17, 3 F Wegmann (Ger) Gerolsteiner 14, 4 A Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel 10, 5 U Etxebarria (Ven) Euskaltel 7, 6 J L Arrieta (Spa) AG2R 6, 7 C Laurent (Fra) Agritubel 6, 8 Jes Voigt (Ger) Team CSC 6, 9 L Lefevre (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 5, 10 M Kessler (Ger) T-Mobile 4.

Team classification: 1 Discovery Channel 59:37:25, 2 Team CSC +1 sec, 3 T-Mobile +2, 4 Caisse d'Epargne +7, 5 Gerolsteiner +18, 6 Phonak +26, 7 Lampre +37, 8 Saunier Duval +42, 9 Rabobank, 10, Credit Agricole +43.