Cycling: Australian Robbie McEwen surged 150 metres from the finish to win the stage of the Tour de France from Huy to Saint-Quentin today.
The Davitamon rider crossed the line at least two full bicycle lengths in front of his rivals, for his second stage win in three days. Isaac Galvez of the Caisse d'Epargne team was second and Rabobank rider Oscar Freire third.
Overall leader Tom Boonen finished fifth to retain the yellow jersey, one second ahead of Michael Rogers (T-Mobile). George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) remained third, five seconds adrift of Boonen.
"The final suited me because the last straight was a little bit uphill," said McEwen who now has 10 Tour stage wins to his name. "I have a marvellous team and my last 'puller', Gert Steegmans, is like a train engine. I died a thousand deaths on the way to the line but I made it."
For the first time in five days, few incidents were reported.
New Zealand's Julian Dean of the Credit Agricole team went down during the bunch sprint with 200 metres to go but managed to cross the line only suffering from a few bruises.
Spaniard Iban Mayo, leader of the Caisse d'Epargne team, crashed earlier in the stage but remounted and rejoined the bunch with the help of four team mates.
The stage started with 172 riders after Erik Dekker, Fred Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde pulled out with shoulder or collarbone injuries after crashing yesterday.