Steegmans wins Stage 2 at Tour de France; Cancellara retains yellow despite crash

A Belgian cyclist won Stage 2 in front of his countrymen in the Tour de France bike race on Monday, but it wasn't the Belgian in the script.

Gert Steegmans essentially works for Tom Boonen on the QuickStep team, and Steegmans was leading out Boonen at the finsh line in Ghent. How cool would it be for Belgian sprint champion Boonen to win in front of the hometown crowd?

But Steegmans kept driving toward the finish line to hold off the rest of the crash-depleted bunch, and Boonen was unable to pass Steegmans at the line. Boonen patted his teammate on the back, however, congratulating him on the 1-2 finish for the QuickStep team.

It was Steegmans' first win at the Tour de France. The 26-year-old rode for Davitamon-Lotto last year.

A massive crash on rain-slicked streets within 3 kilometers of the finish line held up most of the peloton. Rules allow those in the crash to get the same time as winner, enabling Team CSC's Fabian Cancellara to preserve his yellow jersey.

The peloton chased a three man breakaway through sunny and rainy weather most of the day. Rubén Pérez (Euskaltel), Cédric Hervé (Agritubel) and Marcel Sieberg (Milram) broke away with 93 miles left in the race. They were caught less than 2 miles from the finish.

Several teams, including Team CSC, took their turns at the front of the peloton to ensure the breakaway didn't get too far ahead. Even US cyclist David Zabriskie in his domestique role took his turn at the front of the peloton to help protect the overall lead for Cancellera.

No big changes in the Top 10 overall standings.

1. Fabian Cancellara (Swiss) Team CSC
2. Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana, 13 seconds behind
3. David Millar (GBr) Saunier Duval, 21 second
4. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery, 23 seconds
5. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Cofidis, 23 seconds
6. Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Discovery, 25 seconds
7. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep, 26 seconds
8. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Caisse d'Epargne, 26 seconds,
9. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole, 29 seconds
10. Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana, 30 seconds

As for the US riders:

4. George Hincapie, Discovery, 23 seconds behind
30. Levi Leipheimer, Discovery, 30 seconds
70. Chris Horner, Predictor-Lotto, 53 seconds
74. Christian Vande Velde, Team CSC, 53 seconds
130. Freddy Rodriguez, Predictor-Lotto, 1:05 behind
183. David Zabriskie, Team CSC, 2:59 behind

Full results at CyclingNews.