And welcome to VeloNews' Live Coverage of the fourth stage of the 2008 Paris Nice, a 176km day from Montelimar to Mont Ventoux.

Today's course combines tradition with something a little new: The course traces four Cat. 3 climbs before tackling Ventoux's "undiscovered" north face. The 17km final Cat. 1 climb finishes at the Mont Serein ski station, about 5km short of the observatory summit featured in the Tour de France.

Is whether race leader Sylvain Chavanel can withstand promised attacks on the Ventoux from the likes of Luis-Leon Chavez, Yaroslav Popovych, Robert Gesink and others.

There are still ten riders within 34 seconds of Chavanel on GC, and we'll have to see whether a few of them were holding something back on yesterday's stage ... waiting for the Ventoux.

There's a bit of snow up there at the finish line, but it may be melted off by the time the race arrives. A sunny day is forecast. We'll be checking in soon with Our Guy Andrew Hood, who is en route to the finish.

Of course the route designers wanted to soften up the riders' legs a bit before the big finish. Before they get to Ventoux they face the 3rd cat. Cote de Bourdeaux , Cote de Serre de Turc, and the Col de la Madeleine. Ventoux is 1st category.

The riders left at 11:52. We have 149 starters. Looks like Ireland's Philip Deignan of Credit Agricole did not come down to breakfast this morning.

This is a race for the young ones, with second-placed LL Sanchez in the white young rider's jersey today, followed by Gesink and yesterday's hero Lhotellerie.

Gesink of course was the best young rider at the Tour of California this year and last, and was in that two-man break with Leipheimer this year that put Leipheimer in yellow.

CSC's fan favorite Jens Voigt took a flyer with three others at the 11km mark. The four are: Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas), Bernhard Eisel (High Road), Voigt and

Dutchman Niki Terpstra of Milram.

Is Lhotellerie, who really had a spectacular day yesterday, taking off at the 8km mark and staying away 'til the end with Carlstrom. He was still taking some monster pulls into St. Etienne at the end of the stage.

Our break had a 3:15 gap over the peloton. Word is that Spain's Jose Benitez of Saunier Duval is trying to bridge up.

The break has reached the bottom of the Cote de Bourdeaux with just over 6 minutes on the peloton.

The four have topped the Cote de Bourdeaux at the 49.5km marker. Voigt took the KOM points.

We'll see if we can get a time at the summit ...

Is the 3rd category Cote de Serre de Turc, which tops out at 62.5km from the start.

After our boys get over the Cote de Serre de Turc, they will have a long 92 kilometers to the top of the Madelaine. They will get a feed and an intermediate sprint to break things up.

One at Rasteau at km108 and one at Bedoin at km147, just at the base of the Col de la Madeleine.

Of our four men in the break, Kuschynski is the best placed on GC. The Belarus rider is 4:34 behind. The other three are upwards of 20 or 30 minutes behind.

is living up to its name. After four days of awful weather, the sun has made a brilliant comeback. Spring is firmly taken hold in the Rhone Valley with warm temperatures nudging into the lower 70s. It will be much cooler, of course, on the north face of Mont Ventoux.

There's a very brisk mistral blowing down the Rhone that will push the peloton along in the opening before hitting the final climb. That tailwind will turn into crosswinds and perhaps even some sections of headwind as the road zig-zags up the geant du Provence.

Kuschynski took the KOM points at the top of Cote de Serre de Turc.

You may remember some confusion about the status of the young CSC rider at the finish of yesterday's stage. Turns out he was given a 20-second penalty that effectively kept him out of the yellow jersey. He told VeloNews' Andrew Hood before the start that the penalty was fair.

The Dutch rider lost contact with the favorites and glided too closely to team cars to catch onto a chasing trio of Quick Step riders near the top of the day's final climb.

"I'm glad I don't have the jersey. It wouldn't have been fair. I was dropped near the top and I couldn't stay with the best. We fought like dogs to come back, but they were stronger," he said.

"I lost time (Wednesday) and I will lose more time today. I feel very good, so maybe I can still win a stage."

Nice attitude.

Just to bring you back to the present, we have four men off the front. Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas), Bernhard Eisel (High Road), Jens Voigt (CSC) and Niki Terpstra (Milram) took off at around km11 and have stayed away over the race's first four climbs.

They are now entering the long valley leading to the Col de le Madelaine, followed by Ventoux. Last time check they had more than 6 minutes, but that time is getting ancient. We're trying to get a more recent check.

Voigt has quite a history at Paris Nice. The German won the prologue in Issy-les-Moulineaux in 2005 and finished in the final top 10 four times, in 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2005.

He starts today more than a half hour behind race leader Sylvaine Chavanel, however.

The peloton is being pushed along by that stiff tailwind, which may become less favorable as they approach the final climb. The pack averaged 42.6 kph in the second hour of racing.

the four have arrived at the feed zone in Valreas (km84) with a 7:15 gap over the pack.

Trent Lowe (Slipstream-Chipotle) said he felt banged up after crashing at the base of yesterday's final climb and doesn't expect too much for Ventoux.

"I hit the deck pretty hard. I had to wait a long time to change the bike. We were in good position going into the final climb, but I hit a pole. It was after the descent and I didn't see it after coming out of corner," he told us this morning.

"It's just the way it goes. It takes me out of the GC and I don't know how I will be able to react today."

Lowe was not the only one to crash yesterday. In fact, seven of the eight riders on CSC went down at one point or another on the stage.

CSC's Bobby Julich said karma is catching up with the team this year.

"If we didn't have bad luck, we wouldn't have any at all," he told us before the start.

"We have just dominated this race the past few years, but this year the odds are against us. We've had some bad luck with crashes. Maybe now with the weather improving, our luck will change, too. The first few days have just been awful. This team always bounces back. We will try to win a stage. This race is very special to me. I live in Nice and I won in 2005, but this year it's kicking our ass."

Of course the team's Jens Voigt is taking names in a four-man breakaway as we speak.

The names on the race bible read like the labels on the wine aisle: Cairanne, Seguret, Sablet, Gigondas, Vacqueyras and Beaumes de Venise

Second-placed Luis Leon Sanchez of Caisse d'Epargne is just 3 seconds behind Chavanel on GC. He's optimistic ahead of today's stage:

"Ventoux is hard and it will decide everything. I've been working harder than ever and I think I have the legs to be at the front. The first days were very difficult, but I was able to keep in position. I responded OK on the climb yesterday. Chavanel looks strong, but there are others too. This is my first big goal and I'm in good position. We'll see at the top of Ventoux how things stand."

They have reached km108, coming up on the first intermediate sprint ...

Kuschynski took the sprint, with its three points and three-second time bonus. Eisel was second and Voigt, third.

Kuschynski, remember, started the day 4:34 behind Chavanel on GC. He's the best placed rider in this foursome.

The leaders will be going up and down over the next few k's, then they will get a nice open descent before they start the climb toward the next sprint at Bedoin and the Col de la Madelaine.

Mont Ventoux is one of cycling's legendary climbs, but for being so famous, it's only rarely featured in races.

Paris-Nice last climbed it in 1987, when Sean Kelly won in a stage that ended at the Chalet Reynard. The unpredictable March weather makes it impossible to take the stage to the observatory made so famous in the Tour.

Ventoux has been featured in the Tour only seven times, the first in 1958 with Charly Gaul winning and Richard Virenque victorious in the last ascent in 2002. The Dauphine Libere has used the climb eight times, with one of yesterday's aggressors, Christophe Moreau, winning last year.

well, that's the latest time check we've got, but it may be a bit old.

Today's final hump is 14.9km with an average grade of 7.3 percent, making it the hardest climb so far in the 2008 racing season. The climb begins at 377m in Malaucene and ends at Mont-Serein ski area at 1,387m and features ramps as steep as 10 percent.

is keeping some kind of rein on the break, but that may be due more to the nice tailwind than actual concern ... Chavanel's Cofidis team is rolling through at the front.

We wonder if there was something special in the feed bag for AG2R rider Stephane Goubert, who is the old man of the Paris-Nice peloton. He's celebrating his 38th birthday on the road today.

The latest check has our four at 5:40. The chase is not allowing the four as long a leash as they gave Lhottellier and his mates yesterday.

Rabobank is giving Cofidis a hand. They would like to spring Gesink on the final climbs. Gesink says he was feeling strong yesterday but had some issues with his chain on the final climb that kept him from being as aggressive as he would have liked.

are just hitting the base of the ascent leading to the final intermediate sprint at Bedoin and the Col de la Madelaine. This is where the real work begins, bubs.

The peloton averaged 48 kph in the third hour of racing, thanks to that tailwind.

In the peloton, Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) and Tyler Farrar (Slipstream) have crashed. Farrar is back on his bike while last we saw Kreuziger was on his feet, attended by race doctor Gerard Porte.

The crash coincided with a computer crash here, but we are getting rolling again, attended by the IT doctors ... we may take a fresh bike ...

5:25 is the latest time check up to our four escapees. they've been off since km11 ...

they are coming toward the sprint and the base of the climb

We just learned that Team CSC's current main sponsor, the IT company CSC, is leaving professional cycling when its contract expires at the end of this year. Team boss Bjarne Riis is looking to line up a new sponsor.

the break took all the bonuses at the Bedoin sprint, of course. Kuschynski got the 1st place again

"This marks the beginning of something new for us and I know that we are ready to go out and show the world that we are here to stay," Riis said in a statement released this morning. Contact him directly if you are interested.

The gap to the foursome is down a bit as the pack gets a bit antsy prior to the start of the day's last climbs.

Antoine Rollin in Georgia asks:

"How do you feel about Prudhomme considering the idea of eliminating race radios for some of the stages of the Tour this year?"

Our leaders are over the Col de la Madelaine. Eisel took the KOM points

I can't speak for the entire VeloNews cru, of course, but I'm pro technology. (I'd like to see instant replays in baseball. Fans love it in football, I hear.) And there is that whole cat-outa-the-bag thing ... there's no use pretending this technology doesn't exist. I think it's fun.

We will gladly entertain other opinions. Send them on.

The peloton is waking up. Folks want to hit Ventoux in good position. The gap to the breakaway is coming down rapidly.

The breakaway has hit the bottom of the Ventoux. If any of these four wants a stage win, look for him to attack the others soon. Eisel, perhaps?

was the gap at the start of the climb

Voigt attacks. Kuschynski is staying on him

Moreau is leading the bunch

The back side of the Ventoux climb is just under 15km. 15 tough kms ...

the two are hammering on the front. Moreau is still there ... where's Chavanel?

Voigt has a minute on Eisel. Kuschynski is following Eisel. Not sure how far back Popy and Gesink are ... but they've got to be closing on them

Moreau, Botcharov and Pineau have fallen off the pace

He's not enjoying himself. He's at the back of the group. They are 2:45 behind Voigt.

And Voigt is maintaining 2:45 - will the German hold it?

He's back.

the elite chase has caught him.

are in between the chase and Voigt

And some Gerolsteiner gents are at the front of the chase

Gerolsteiner's Rebellin has been quiet so far - he's getting a nice set up here, though

they were caught a minute ago. Jens is alone out there.

is struggling. But he always looks that way.

He keeps falling off and then rejoining the chase. It's making us dizzy.

looks like some Quick Step riders up there, setting up Boonen (I'm kidding)

Their man here is Spaniard Juan Manuel Garate, in fifth place, just 18 seconds behind Chavanel

Chavanel has popped.

is with teammate Maxime Monfort, trying to rejoin the chase

With 1.40, officially

he looks - just about like he always looks. He's gotta really dig now

There goes Gesink!

Rebellin, Nocentini and Popovych are marking him

4km to go

Popy, Evans and Gesink reeled him in'

long day out there

Evans and Gesink are together

Gesink was just 21 seconds out of yellow at the start of the day

For Evans and Gesink. Popy has lost 30 seconds rather quickly

they have 1k to the finish

Evans wins the stage - Gesink for GC???

1. Cadel Evans (Aus, Silence Lotto)

2. Robert Gesink (Netherlands, Rabobank)

3. Rinaldo Nocentini (Italy, AG2R)

4. Davide Rebellin (Italy, Gerolsteiner)

5. Frank Schleck (Luxembourg, CSC)

Rebellin was a few seconds ahead of Gesink on GC, but let's get a time gap at the finish, here ... to see how this will all shake out

Yuppers. And Chavanel lost more than 3 minutes ...

So the young climbing and GC star Gesink takes over the lead on the most difficult stage. And Cadel Evans redeems his Paris Nice campaign with a snappy stage win atop Ventoux. Thanks for following along with us. Check back to VeloNews.com soon for Andrew Hood's full stage report, Graham Watson's photos and full results.