Oscar Freire edged a classic sprint finish to win the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday 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.
Dumoulin and Schroder shared the majority of the sprint and climbing points from Thursday'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.
Leading positions in stage five, (Beauvais-Caen) 225 km:
1 O Freire Spa/Rabobank 5:18:50
2 T Boonen Bel/Quick-Step
3 I Isasi Spa/Eus-Eus
4 D Kopp Ger/Gerolsteiner
5 R McEwen Aus/Dav-Lotto
6 A Ballan Ita/Lampre-Fondital
7 T Hushovd Nor/Cr Agricole all same time
Overall positions after stage five:
1 T Boonen Bel/Quick-Step 25.10.51
2 M Rogers Aus/T-Mobile at 0.13
3 O Freire Spa/Rabobank at 0.17
4 G Hincapie USA/Discovery
5 T Hushovd Nor/Cr Agricole at 0.19
6 R McEwen Aus/Dav-Lotto at 0.24
7 P Savoldelli Ita/Discovery at 0.27
