Alessandro Ballan of L-C wins stage 4, and Verbrugge retains the lead by six seconds over Allan Davis.

Rather bizarre happenings with about 45 Km to go. There apparently was an accident on the route - car and moto, but not sure if it was race related - just after a summit. They detoured the route with a three man break, one follower, and the peloton. Then they stopped everyone at about 42.5 Km. When they all arrived, they were restarted, supposedly keeping the gaps intact. However, just prior, I thought I saw a 12 minute or so gap to the peloton, and after the restart it was less than four. I can't wait for the real scoop.

Oh, and the organizers said the other day that they wanted to make this the best race in the Pro Tour. How? By providing better organization than the TdF (their example).