Lance retains yellow as McEwen takes stage

ROBBIE McEWEN of Australia won today’s fifth stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish.

McEwen, riding for the Davitamon-Lotto team, timed his sprint to perfection to pip Tom Boonen on the line, denying the Belgian what would have been his third stage win of the 2005 Tour.

Boonen had to settle for second while third place went to Norway's Thor Hushovd after a 183km ride from Chambord to Montargis.

Lance Armstrong of the United States retained the race leader's yellow jersey.

Armstrong has a 55-second lead over fellow American George Hincapie after finishing in the pack. The Texan, competing in his final Tour, is already more than a minute ahead of his main rivals with the onerous mountain climbs where Armstrong usually makes his decisive move still to come.

The ride from Chambard to Montargis was brought alive by a breakaway bid by a group of four riders, Juan Antonio Flecha, Salvatore Commesso, Laszlo Bodrogi and Kjell Carlstrom.

The lead peaked at 3 minutes 10 seconds at the 115km mark but started to fall as the peloton set out in pursuit of the four frontrunners.

As the pack hunted down the quartet the sun finally decided to make an appearance with the gap down to 35sec as the race entered its final 25km. With 11km remaining the peloton finally swallowed up the four leaders as the rival teams began to set up their sprinters for the finish.

In the closing 100 metres Boonen looked set to claim the prize again, but McEwen timed his run to perfection to win by half a wheel's length, raising his arms in celebration as he crossed the line.

It was the sixth career stage win for the Australian sprinter who recorded a winning time of three hours 46 minutes.