REIMS, France — It was almost an OK day for Lance Armstrong.

He had no flat tires, no falls, nothing unexpected during Wednesday's Stage 4 of the Tour de France. The route was flat and simple and contested mostly at the finish line when 36-year-old Italian Alessandro Petacchi outsprinted everyone and won the 95.4-mile ride that began in Cambrai and finished here in the capital of the Champagne region.

Then came the unexpected.

After the race, Armstrong stood near the RadioShack team bus and explained to reporters what his simple plan had been for Wednesday.

"I didn't want to have a third day in a row of bad luck," he said, referring most notably to a flat tire Tuesday on the rough cobblestones that caused him to drop time. "You just deal with it, make it happen. There are always crashes; days like yesterday are so extreme there's nothing you can do …"

Suddenly a fan began screaming insults at him in French, calling him a cheater and a doper.

The Tour de France, as with all cycling races, allows fans to crowd the team buses. Usually they are scrambling for autographs and photos. But when this man yelled his insults, Armstrong stopped talking and quickly climbed aboard the bus.

It had been a different scene at the beginning of Stage 4, when he received a loud ovation.

Armstrong has been dogged by allegations of doping almost from the time he won his first championship in Paris in 1999. In May, ex-teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping, accused him of participating in doping programs when Armstrong was riding for the U.S. Postal Service team.

Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara kept the yellow jersey. Armstrong remained in 18th place, 2 minutes, 30 seconds behind Cancellara.

dpucin@tribune.com