Freire edges out Tour leader Boonen in classic sprint finish
Boonen has a 13-second lead at the top of the overall leaderboard ahead of Michael Rogers after claiming a second place behind Freire, who sits a further three seconds back.
Samuel Dumoulin and Bjorn Schroder had broken away after 20km of the 225km stage from Beauvais to Caen and opened a gap of almost 13 minutes. They then found themselves hauled back into the peloton, which was led by the Quick Step team to protect the yellow jersey of team-mate Boonen, with 3.5km remaining.
Dumoulin and Schroder shared the majority of the sprint and climbing points from today’s stage but Jerome Pineau held onto the King of the Mountains’ polka-dot jersey with a nine-point lead over David De la Fuente.
Dumoulin, Schroder, Sebastian Lang, Bram De Groot, Bram Tankin, Stephane Auge and Manuel Quinziato made the early breakaway but the group soon diminished to leave Schroder and Dumoulin clear after 37km.
“The Tour de France happens only once a year so I wanted to make the most of it,” Dumoulin said.
Dumoulin and Schroder were caught in the closing stages, before Boonen and his team-mates battled with Robbie McEwen, Erik Zabel and Thor Hushovd for prime position in the sprint, only for three-time world champion Freire and his Rabobank team to pip current world champion Boonen.
Spain’s Inaki Isasi grabbed third place ahead of Germany’s David Kopp and Australian McEwen, who won Wednesday’s sprint for his second victory of this year’s race and 10th in all.
“Every sprint is difficult here, there’s always danger involved,” said Freire.
McEwen leads Boonen by just one point in the race for the green jersey, while Freire moves into third following yesterday’s win.
“I’m really happy with my team. It’s a strong team and they worked during a really long stage,” said Boonen.
“Explosiveness is still there, and I’m still waiting, but I’m happy to be in yellow for three straight days. After all the hard work and the efforts we’ve put in, I’m still in yellow, and now I’m sure that my legs are good,” he added.
Today’s sixth stage takes the riders over the 189km from Lisieux to Vitre.
lTests for the use of prohibited substances carried out during the recent FBD Insurance RÁS have all been declared negative.
The 32 anti-doping tests carried out by the world controlling body, Union Cycliste Internationale, involved riders from most of the nine countries that competed in the race.
Stage winners, race leaders on the day and riders selected at random were tested.
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