Three-time former world champion Oscar Freire of Spain won stage five of the Tour de France on Thursday, holding off overall leader Tom Boonen in the finishing sprint.
Boonen's second place earned bonus time to allow him to build on his lead. The world champion was due to wear the race leader's yellow jersey for a third straight day in yesterday's sixth stage.
Bonus time for the win also vaulted Freire from 20th to third overall. World time-trial champion Michael Rogers of Australia is still second, 13 seconds behind Boonen, with Freire a further four seconds back.
George Hincapie of the United States slipped from third to fourth, also 17 seconds behind Boonen.
Freire, of the Rabobank squad, accelerated sharply in the last 300m, sprinting up the right side of the finishing straight to take the stage victory, his second in three Tours.
"It wasn't the way that I'm used to sprinting. I usually stay in other riders' wheels and wait until the last second," he said. But this time "what I needed to do was to take the initiative ... That is what I did."
Despite holding the yellow jersey, Boonen has not displayed the explosive form he showed on the past two Tours, when he won four stages.
He said on Thursday that defending the lead has drained him. His goal is not winning yellow in Paris at the finish on July 23 but more stages and green -- the color of the jersey awarded to the Tour's best sprinter.
Boonen is just one point behind Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen, who won the green jersey in 2002 and 2004, in that category.
Although Boonen has won smaller stage races and the treacherous Paris-Roubaix, the "queen of the classics" that dates to 1896, he is still seen -- and still sees himself -- as a sprint stage winner at the Tour, not a contender for the overall title that Lance Armstrong won for the past seven years.
Boonen said the yellow jersey felt "more heavy" for him "because I'm not supposed to wear it."
"It's something I have to work for very hard because I'm not the kind of rider to wear yellow," he added. "It's been causing a lot of strain but I'm close to the green and I'm wearing the yellow."
"I am happy with my start to the Tour," he said.
Inaki Isasi of the Basque team Euskaltel placed third in the sprint finish at the Normandy town of Caen. McEwen, winner of two stages this Tour and 10 overall, was fifth.
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