Team BMC Racing's former World Champion Cadel Evans edged defending champion Alberto Contador in a photo finish Tuesday to win stage 4 of the 2011 edition of the Tour de France Grand Tour, and Garmin-Cervélo's World Champion Thor Hushovd retained the overall Tour de France lead.

The mostly flat 172.5-kilometer (107-mile) course from Lorient to Mur-de-Bretagne with a short, steep uphill finish epitomized two race aspects so far: Evans has been flawless, and Contador - who hasn't - can never be ruled out.

The nail-biting finale was so close that Contador raised a fist to celebrate what the three-time Tour champ believed was his victory, but a photograph at the line showed Evans, an Australian two-time runner-up, had won.

Still, the ride left little doubt that Contador, who has faced a series of early setbacks already, is in shape to compete. With his second-place finish, he regained several seconds against other some likely title contenders.

"I don't know if I'm the master of the uphill finish, but today it was a difficult one with the wind and everything," Evans said and continued "It was very close. I didn't know if I had it on the line myself."

But the Spaniard's strong finish demonstrated "Contador again proving himself. He was up there and riding well," Evans said. "He's never a guy you can underestimate."

It was the first in-competition Tour stage win for Evans in seven appearances, though he inherited a stage victory in 2007 after Alexandre Vinokourov was barred in a team doping scandal. It was also the first Tour stage victory for an Australian since Simon Gerrans won Stage 15 finishing at Italy's Prato Nevoso in 2008.

Hushovd, the Norwegian world champion and known mainly as a sprint specialist, narrowly kept the race leader's yellow jersey by trailing not far behind in a small breakaway group.

"My only goal today was to keep the yellow jersey," said Hushovd, of Garmin-Cervelo. "I had a great day ... I will do all I can to defend this jersey as long as possible."

Evans clocked 4 hours, 11 minutes, 39 seconds - the same time as Contador, third-place Vinokourov and Hushovd, who came sixth. Overall, Hushovd held on to a one-second lead over Evans.

Frank Schleck of Luxembourg rose to third place from seventh by staying with the seven-man group, including Evans and Contador, though he didn't gain any time on Hushovd and is 4 seconds back overall.

Contador remains 1:42 behind Hushovd in 41st place after two dismal opening days at the Tour, first being stalled by a crash on Saturday and then losing time with his Saxo Bank squad in the team time trial on Sunday.

But the Spaniard finished today's stage 8 seconds faster than possibly his biggest overall rival - Andy Schleck, Frank's younger brother and the Tour runner-up for the past two years.

It was a message not lost on Andy Schleck.

"Losing seven seconds (sic) (to Contador) isn't good, but it's not a catastrophe," he said. "I never thought that he was out of the race; he just had bad luck the first day and his team wasn't suited for the team time trial."

Evans' stage victory capped what has so far been a nearly impeccable Tour for him. His BMC team fared well in the time trial, and he has avoided the many crashes that have entangled both Contador and Andy Schleck.

Evans suffered a bit of a scare with 20 kilometers to go in the 172.5 km race when he punctured, then had his path blocked by a camera motorbike that crashed in front of him. But nearly half of the BMC Racing Team quickly returned him to the peloton.

With four kilometers to go, BMC Racing Team's American road captain George Hincapie, who's competing in a record-tying 16th Tour de France, ratched up the pace at the front to string out the peloton as it approached the final two-kilometer climb. At the bottom of the final climb Hincapie left the front of the peloton and it was up to Evans himself to finish the deal.

Evans said he followed the wheel of Team Omega Pharma-Lotto's Philippe Gilbert who won stage 1. "Philippe was certainly the guy to watch," Evans said and added "It was a particular kind of finish with the wind and so on. I'm really pleasantly surprised."

"It's probably not much of a climb if you do it in training but the way the stage was, with the wet, the wind and a nervy peloton, that was pretty tough at the end of 170 kilometer," Team Sky Procycling's GC contender Bradley Wiggins told Roadcycling.com and our mobile sister site Roadcycling.mobi after the stage.

"I just conceded a few seconds at the top there but gained a lot on other people and at the end of three weeks it's not going to mean much. It was a tricky finish and it's a question of making sure you stay out of trouble again, staying upright and getting it all out so I'm pretty happy. It's still early days yet and these stages are all about not giving anything away but the real stuff is still to come," Wiggins concluded.

The stage result was likely to be a disappointment for Gilbert, who turned 29 today and was the favorite to win because of his prowess on course layouts like the fourth stage.

Earlier, Jurgen Van de Walle of Belgium became the first rider to pull out of the race - reducing the field to 197 racers. The Omega Pharma-Lotto rider quit due to lingering groin pain from a crash Saturday, the team said in a statement.

Riders set off under rain in the coastal city of Lorient, whose name is derived from the 17th century shipyards and port for trading ships that hauled back spices, teas, silk, porcelain and other goods from Asia, or "The Orient."

Seemingly the whole pack began the ride in rain jackets, but gradually peeled them off as skies dried up. The roads were mostly wet, though there were some dry patches on the weaving course.

Five riders who were low in the standings sped ahead of the pack by the 9-kilometer (5.5-mile) mark, and built a lead of nearly 5 minutes on the main bunch over the next 15 kilometers (10 miles).

But as is common in flat rides, when the pack accelerates behind constantly changing front men who cut into the wind, the peloton tracked down and overtook the increasingly tired escapees with 4 kilometers left.

That set the stage for the leaders to break out alone to scale the Mur-de-Bretagne, a 2-kilometer climb with a super-steep patch known by some as the "Alpe d'Huez of Brittany" after the famous peak in the French Alps.

Team BMC Racing's Evans - supported by his teammates - and Team Saxo BankSunGard's Contador were the riders who helped prevent the stage from finishing in the hesitant, non-interesting way which we have seen other GC contenders be responsible for in previous editions of the Tour de France.

Evans and Contador showed the whole peloton who the real men in the peloton are and why they deserved to finish 1-2 in today's stage. Respect for non-hesitant riding - that's what cycling fans want to watch and read about.

Click here for complete results from stage 4.