Alessandro Petacchi of Italy won the fourth stage of the Tour de France in a mass sprint Wednesday, with the leading contenders for the yellow jersey finishing safely in the main pack. The Lampre rider collected his second stage win of the Tour in the 153.5-kilometer ride from Cambrai to the champagne capital Reims - a mostly flat trek that appeared tailor-made for sprinters. Petacchi, who is competing in his first Tour since 2005, veered wide left to get a jump on three lead riders - including Thor Hushovd of Norway and Britain's Mark Cavendish - with about 400 meters left. By the end, Petacchi had dusted them and edged Julian Dean of New Zealand in second and Edval Boasson Hagen of Norway in third. The pack had the same time as Petacchi: 3 hours, 34 minutes, 55 seconds. “I'm really happy ... I had nothing to lose, and I wanted to try my chances,” said Petacchi, who also won four stages in the 2004 Tour. “At this stage in my career, winning two Tour stages is really important.” Petacchi hit back at claims by some media that, in what had been a fallow season, he is over the hill at 36 years old. “I'm not like a little old man, as some have said. This win is really important for me and for the team,” said Petacchi, who played down claims he only won Sunday's opening stage because a crash took out many rivals. “I've come here to win stages and I've shown twice that I'm not here to make up the numbers. “In the over 200 sprints I've done I've learned a thing or two. But today I have to say thanks to my team, they really anticipated things despite the fact they don't have a lot of experience trying to set up sprints.” The Italian veteran all but schooled Cavendish, who had a lead-out man with him. The Briton, who won six Tour stages last year and whom some have called cycling's bad boy, hurled his bike in frustration after the stage. “I don't think he has anything to learn from me. He won six last year,” Petacchi, 36, said of Cavendish. Defending champion Alberto Contador was 32nd, last year's runner-up, Andy Schleck, placed 58th, and seven-time champion Lance Armstrong crossed 36th. Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland retained the yellow jersey, having recovered it during Tuesday's ride over cobblestones - where Armstrong sustained a punctured tire and lost precious seconds. The other top standings didn't change. Among the overall contenders, two-time Tour runner-up Cadel Evans is third, 39 seconds back; Schleck is sixth, 1:09 back; Contador is ninth, 1:40 back; and Armstrong is 18th, 2:30 back. Multiple stage winner McEwen won the stage to Reims the last time the Tour visited in 2002 but had to settle for fourth place. “I was on the wheel of Petacchi all the way. I tried to come off him, but got next to him - that was it,” said the Aussie. “Went backwards and I even lost a few places on the line.” After crashing along with dozens of others on a rainy second stage and getting a flat tire in Stage 3, Armstrong said he was happy to get out of Wednesday's relatively short stage with no mishaps. “I didn't want to have a third day in a row of bad luck,” he said. “(It's) nice that everybody stayed up.” So how does he handle bad luck? “You just deal with it, make it happen,” he said, before cutting his comments short with a heckler nearby. “There's always crashes, days like yesterday are so extreme there's nothing you can do.” Before the stage, coming out of the team bus to a huge ovation from fans, Armstrong said he would need to be “opportunistic” in his bid to make up ground in the race, which ends July 25 in Paris. The next big challenges loom in the Alps, starting with Sunday's Stage 8.
