Freire edges out Tour leader Boonen in classic sprint finish

OSCAR FREIRE edged a classic sprint finish to win the fifth stage of the Tour de France yesterday as Tom Boonen retained the yellow jersey.

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.