Gert Steegmans wins the sprint into Ghent

Tom Boonen in the Green Jersey

The Tour moved to France today with the riders racing from Dunkirk to Ghent, Belgium. The finish of the 168.5km stage went to Tom Boonen’s team-mate Gert Steegmans, who led out his team leader with a little bit too much enthusiasm

The race was marred by a crash in the last 3km, with 20 riders coming down, including race leader and Prologue winner Fabian Cancellara. The fallers were credited with the same tinme as the stage winner under new UCI regulations governing pile-ups within the last 3km. Discovery’s Tomas Vaitkus broke his thumb and abandoned, but the remainder of the fallers started the following morning.