Thor de France & Cadel Punches It!

Exciting finish...
Hushovd in sixth, Evans edges out Contador!


Call it in the zone, the magic of the golden fleece... I call it Thor de France.


To team work.



Thor Hushovd wears the yellow jersey yet another day after clawing back to finish sixth up the steep climb to Mur-de-Bretagne. The God of Thunder never said die, produced an enormous effort to stay in yellow.

The big sprinter kept with the lead group consisting of Contador, Evans and stage favorite Gilbert. As Contador finally showed his strength and dared the rest with a confident attack and lunged at the finish line. Perhaps he picked the wrong rider to test... Cadel Evans satisfyingly edged him for a spectacular stage victory. I was surprised Gilbert (fifth) didn't win and surely he must've felt disappointed not to add a gift to his birthday.

"It was painful and I cracked up a bit in the climb -- I was over my limit. But then I thought about the yellow jersey and I gave it all I got. I'm proud of what I did," said Hushovd.

"About two or three years ago, I realized that I could not compete anymore on flat sprints with a guy like Cavendish. So I started to focus on a different type of sprints. To be strong on small climbs, you need specific preparation and specific work," Hushovd said.

And wearing the yellow jersey provides the rider that extra something. Hushovd believes he can keep it until Saturday when the race reaches the Massif Central mountains.


Thor de lunch.
velonews.competitior.com

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