Stage 4 - 2011 Tour de France Lorient to Mur-de-Bretagne

Today's stage is about 173KM and the race began with all 198 riders still on two wheels and racing. That only lasted until the 40KM mark or so when Jurgen Van de Walle abandoned.

If you've seen the Tour in the past - and I'm guessing many of my readers have at least followed it - it's not uncommon to have scads of riders abandon the race before the finish. In some years there are actually very few teams that complete the Tour de France with their entire complement of riders.

We'll see how many more are gone by the time we get to stage 10 or 15.

In the first 60+KM of today's stage, only a small breakaway and no crashes. More info to come in a bit.