German Stefan Schumacher caught the favorites out to snatch the Tour de France overall leader's yellow jersey with victory in the fourth stage, a 29.5-km time trial around Cholet on July 8.
The Gerolsteiner rider clocked a best time of 35 minutes and 44 seconds on a windswept course at an average speed of 49.534kph to beat Luxemburg's Kim Kirchen of Team Columbia by 18 seconds.
Briton David Millar of the Garmin-Chipotle team, who has two time trial victories on the Tour to his name, came home third, also 18 seconds behind Schumacher.
The trio occupy the three first places in the overall standings, with Schumacher leading Kirchen and Millar by 12 seconds.
Australian Cadel Evans, one of the race's hot favorites, underlined his credentials by taking fourth place 27 seconds off the pace.
"So far, so good," said the Silence-Lotto rider, fourth overall 21 seconds adrift of Schumacher. "I am first in the favorites' standings."
Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, who wore the yellow jersey for two days, had a relatively disappointing run, losing one minute and seven seconds to Evans, whom he will have to attack in the mountain stages to fulfil his dream of winning the Tour.
Italian Damiano Cunego, not a time trial specialist, hung on well, losing only 58 seconds to Evans.
Stage hot favorite Fabian Cancellara had superstitiously flipped his bib No. 13 upside down but it did not help him and the Swiss finished fifth, 33 seconds off the pace.
Tailor made
On a course that was tailor-made for the twice time trial world champion, Rabobank's Denis Menchov of Russia set the race favorites' pace with a time of 36:18.
Riccardo Ricco, second in the Giro d'Italia, finished three minutes and 36 seconds behind the stage winner.
Expectations were high on Mark Cavendish before the start of the Tour de France but the Briton has failed to deliver in the early stages which had seemed, on paper, to favour his finishing power.
With seven victories this season, Cavendish found himself the most successful sprinter to start the Tour after Belgian Tom Boonen and Alessandro Petacchi were ruled out on doping grounds.
The Team Columbia rider, 22, also showed this year by winning two sprint finishes on the Giro d'Italia that he could handle the special pressure of a three-week race. His best result last year in his first Tour de France was ninth in a stage in Compiegne and he almost matched that in Monday's third stage to Nantes, taking 10th place.
The placing marked a clear improvement from 129th in the Tour opener in Plumelec and 27th the next day in St Brieuc but was still far below his hopes.
"I would be a little bit disappointed if I didn't win one stage on this Tour," Cavendish said before the start of the fourth stage yesterday. "But it's a fact that sprints on the Tour are different, more difficult because the pace is at least ten percent higher. It is fast from start to finish," he said.
Cavendish has not been helped by circumstances. The first stage finished with a short, steep climb and his team leader Kim Kirchen was in the front in the finale.
The second was a little too bumpy for him, while four escapees stole the show in the third stage to Nantes which would have suited him perfectly.
Cavendish is also not the only strong finisher in his team, with Austria's Bernhard Eisel and Germany's Gerald Ciolek both capable of surging in the last stretch, not to mention Kirchen.
Kirchen and Ciolek were second and third in the second stage. The Briton said there was no plan each day at the start to favour any rider.
"We do it on feeling. The race decides who is best placed, who is in the best form," he said.
Cavendish said he was saving strength for today's 232km fifth stage to Chateauroux, ideally designed for a rider of his calibre.
"Every chance of a break is welcome because I will need to be at full gas to survive the mountains," said the Briton, who really wants to make it all the way to Paris. Yet Cavendish has no plans to go for the points standings which crown the best sprinter on the Tour: "I'm not consistent enough yet to go for the green jersey. Maybe in years to come," he said.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily July 9, 2008)