"Stage four of the 2008 Tour de France provided another completely unpredictable end to the daily proceedings. Stefan Schumacher, who has never factored in the time trial standings, put in a dominant performance of very Lance Armstrongish style and it highlights the question of the moment – who has timed their season fitness to peak perfectly for the Tour?

Stefan’s win did the best thing possible for his team who don’t have a sponsor at year end. That Gerolsteiner has been rather lackluster through the spring campaign, now we can see that perhaps they’ve been saving themselves for the Tour de France….because after all, it is the Tour that pays the bills. I’d say that if they don’t get a sponsor with this result than the sport may be in a more dire straits than we previously thought.

Both the Garmin and Columbia squads had good results with Kirchen and Millar rounding out the top three today. I would look to either of these two riders to be in yellow after Stage six to Super Besse because they’re better climbers than Schumacher.

Of course with the Tour de France being anything but traditional this year, Stage four and six will be the major rendezvous for the overall GC contenders."

Bobke’s Inside Line: “I can’t stress the importance of getting your work done as soon as possible at the end of the day and bolting to the hotel to get dinner. Craig Hummer and I had a five course, three hour long, two bottle of wine dinner which was the perfect cap to an 11 hour day.  Even better was that while we made the dinner cut-off, the Brits (Phil Ligget & Paul Sherwin) got flicked when they showed up at closing and they ended up having to drive to town for a pizza and beer!”