Favorites battle for win on Stage 4 of Tour de France

The 4th stage out of 21 may seem a little early for the Tour de France contenders to test each other, but that's what happened on a rainy Tuesday in the summit finish Mûr-de-Bretagne.

Scoring well in this early test were Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador, last year's winner. Not doing so well was Andy Schleck, who finished second in 2010 and was considered Contador's chief rival.

Contador (Saxobank), who has been languishing at 1:42 behind the yellow jersey, issued the challenge by going to the front of the peloton and attacking on the final 2km climb.

That alerted the other contenders to follow. Evans (BMC), sitting 3rd overall, actually used Contador's attack as a lead out. He then passed Contador and drove to the finish just ahead of the Spaniard.

Norway's Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo), remained in the yellow jersey as he finished 6th in the sprint with the same time as Evans.

Absent among the top finishers was Andy Schleck (Leopard); he finished in 23rd place, losing 8 seconds to Evans.

While Evans rose to 2nd overall, 1 second behind Hushovd, Frank Schleck rose to 3rd and Andy Schleck fell to 9th.

Finishing in 3rd place in the stage rising to 3rd overall in the overall standings was Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana).

It looked like the brothers Schleck were both being set up for a big day as they followed Leopard-Trek teammate Fabian Cancellara, who drove the peloton toward the end of the 172.5km (107 miles) stage from Lorient to Mûr-de-Bretagne in Brittany.

Earlier in the day, BMC and Omega worked the front of the peloton for Evans and Phillippe Gilbert, winner of Stage 1. Garmin-Cervelo finally joined in the chase with about 20 miles to go.

The breakaway was caught with about 3 miles left in the race.

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41. Alberto Contador (Spa) SaxoBank — 1:42