Farrar wins one for Wouter

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Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo) gained a huge morale boost leading up to the Tour de France, netting his first victory since the death of his close friend Wouter Weylandt.

Farrar dusted the other sprinters on the 177km stage from Eindhoven to Sittard/Geleen, coming in bike lengths ahead of Vacansoleil's Romain Feillu and Adam Blythe (Omega Pharma-Lotto).

As he crossed the line, Farrar formed a "W" with his hands in memory of his Belgian friend.

"It's an important victory - the last few months have been very, very hard for me," Farrar said after the stage. "It's still hard to talk about."

HTC-Highroad's Patrick Gretsch finished safely in the peloton to continue his time in the race leader's yellow jersey, while Farrar claimed the lead in the points classification.

The finale may have been one for the sprinters, but the rest of the day belonged to a five-man breakaway that escaped early in the stage during a heavy rainfall which caused several crashes, one of which led to the abandonment of Serge Pauwels (Sky).

Anthony Roux (FDJ), Jens Debusschere (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Baptiste Planckaert (Landbouwkrediet), Ronan van Zandbeek (Skil-Shimano) and Cornelius van Ooijen (Cycling Team Jo Piels) gained a maximum 3:50 lead on the peloton, but as the skies cleared the gap fell rapidly under the impetus of the HTC-Highroad and Omega Pharma-Lotto teams.

Roux and Van Zandbeek battled for the intermediate sprints, with the Skil-Shimano man taking the first and Roux winning the second. Tied on points, the jersey went to Roux at the end of the day.

Coming into the final circuit the lead of the breakaway was hovering around the minute mark when Van Zandbeek decided to attack. Only Roux was able to follow, and the other three went back to the peloton.

As the kilometres ticked down, Van Zandbeek was no longer able to hold the Frenchman's wheel, and Roux continued alone but was caught on the approach to the sole mountain sprint of the day.

Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) attacked to win the hill sprint ahead of Niki Terpstra (Quickstep) and Denis Van Winden (Rabobank).

The sprint briefly split a group of six riders off the front of the field, but with Vacansoleil chasing hard behind, they were reeled in, setting up the bunch sprint.

Despite a prior crash to his lead-out man Julian Dean, Farrar was able to easily pop off the front in the final few hundred meters to win the stage.

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