Australian sprinting ace Robbie McEwen won the fourth stage of the Tour of Italy here today to land his 10th in the race overall.

The 33-year-old took out his second stage of this year's race, having won the second stage on Sunday. Germany's Stefan Schumacher retained the overall leader's pink jersey.

McEwen edged out Italy's Olympic champion Paolo Bettini, whose late run saw him lose out by a length in this 193km ride from Wanze to Hotton, the last stage in Belgium.

Another Italian Alberto Loddo was third in front of Argentinian Axel Richeze and Germany's Olaf Pollack, who had launched the sprint for the line from a way out.

McEwen, though, still has a long way to go to overhaul his great rival Italy's Alessandro Petacchi, who saw his chances of adding to his 19 career stage wins dashed on Monday when he broke his left kneecap after crashing.

AFP