The 2007 Tour of Germany is held from August 10 thru August 18.

The 4th stage of the Tour is a 183.8km ride from Singen to Sonthofen with a Category 2 climb whose summit lies 17 kilometres from the finish line. Apart from this obstacle it's a reasonably flat stage that should allow the peloton to stay together for the majority of the day.

Damiano Cunego (Lampre) took the stage from Davide Rebellin (Gerosteiner) with David López García (Caisse d'Epargne) picking up 3rd place after the 3 of them kicked clear during the final descent of the day. They were part of a 6 man lead group who had made their move ascending the Category 2 climb of Riedbergpass. Also in that group were Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel), Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Rigoberto Uran (Unibet.com). Leipheimer and Gesink gradually lost time on the lead trio on the descent while Uran crashed out in spectacular fashion.

Stage 4 Profile

Stage Summary
A pair of ambitious riders tore off today to try to steal the stage victory. Mariusz Witeck (Team Volksbank) and Piet Rooijakkers (Skil-Shimano) opened up an advantage of in excess of 7 minutes by the time they started the Category 2 climb of Riedbergpass.

But their lead was slashed pretty quickly on an ascent that occasionally kicked up to 16% when Gerolsteiner's Bernhard Kohl launched his first attack. The rest of the peloton tried to respond with the result leaving a group of only 25 riders still together. Towards the top of the mountain pass the lead 6 made their move to draw away from those remaining with Uran taking the points as first man over the top.

Some daring descending from Cunego and Rebellin saw them draw away from Leipheimer and Gesink while Uran overshot a turn less than a kilometre down and was carted off to hospital. Despite working well together Cunego, Rebellin and Lopez Garcia were unable to draw more than 25 seconds in front of the chase group that had swelled to around 50 riders on the way down. However, they still had enough of a lead to fight out the finish taking the first 3 placings just 5 seconds ahead of the rest.

Jens Voigt did enough to keep hold of his yellow jersey for another day heading into the much anticipated Rettenbachferner stage.

A couple of big names have abandoned the Tour with Fabian Cancellara and Andy Schleck (Team CSC) both out, Schleck still feeling the effects of an allergic reaction that left him with vomiting attacks.

Stage 4 summaries can also be found at:

Team CSC site - happy again to defend Voigt's jersey and also pleased that Chris Anker Sørensen is now in the white jersey albeit at the expense of Andy Schleck.
Lampre-Fondital site - celebrates Cunego's stage victory.
Cyclingnews
Daily Peloton
VeloNews

Stage 4 Results

1 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital                                 4.28.06 (41.134 km/h)
2 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner                                         
3 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                  
4 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                           0.05
5 Patrick Calcagni (Sui) Liquigas                                            
6 Peter Velits (Svk) Team Wiesenhof Felt                                     
7 Andrea Tonti (Ita) Quickstep-Innergetic                                    
8 Florian Stalder (Sui) Team Volksbank                                       
9 Manuele Mori (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir                                    
10 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team         
     
Overall GC (Top 10)

1 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC                                           14.33.31
2 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team CSC                              0.01
3 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel                        0.27
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel                     
5 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel                       
6 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner                                       0.45
7 Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC                                                
8 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                       0.49
9 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                  0.52
10 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner                                     0.55

Points Classification

1 Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Caisse D'Espargne                   46 pts
2 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram                                         45
3 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner                                   31

Mountains Classification

1 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Team Milram                          21 pts
2 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner                              8
3 Jon Bru Pascal (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi                   8

Young Rider

1 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team CSC                        14.33.32
2 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                    0.51
3 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner                                        0.54
4 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner                                        0.55
5 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epar                         0.57

Teams 

1 Team CSC                                         43.41.20
2 Discovery Channel                                  0.34
3 Gerolsteiner                                             1.56