McEwen wins Wallonie's penultimate stage

Robbie McEwen (RadioShack) earned his first victory of the season today in stage four of the Tour de Wallonie. The 39-year-old Australian outsprinted Alexander Kristoff (BMC) and Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ) in the bunch gallop to the finish line in Mouscron.

"The guys did a really good job staying in the front and keeping myself and Manuel Cardoso out of the wind and up where we needed to be," said McEwen. "Towards the end and in the final, Bjørn Selander did a good job for me, keeping me in position and out of the wind and following my instructions right until the last 1.5 kilometre where I took [Daniele] Bennati's wheel on the lead-out of Leopard-Trek.

"I was originally going to pull the sprint for Cardoso since the team worked for me yesterday and it didn't work out. But I was in the perfect position and Manuel lost some positions at the crucial moment, so we had to cut to plan B. That plan was pretty good."

The general classification has been a two-man battle between Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Joost Van Leijen (Vacansoleil-DCM) with time bonuses shifting the jersey back-and-forth. Van Leijen started the day with a one-second lead over Van Avermaet, but the BMC rider utilized today's intermediate sprints to draw even with the Dutchman on time. Van Avermaet then crossed the finish line in Mouscron ahead of Van Leijen and reclaimed the leader's jersey.

"It's going to be hard to defend, but we have a strong team here," Van Avermaet said. "The guys rode on the front for the first 25 kilometres to keep it together and help me get back the time I needed in the intermediate sprints."

The Tour de Wallonie concludes on Wednesday with a 163.3km stage from Charleroi to Thuin which features three climbs of the Mur de Thuin, a steep, half-kilometre cobblestone climb.