T-Mobile’s Matthias Kessler (GER) took today’s tough 216.5km stage from Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg by chasing down long-time stage leader Jose Luis Arrieta (ESP) from the AG2R team and then outsprinting Michael Boogard on the final climb, to win the stage 5 seconds ahead of any other cyclist.

Kessler had made an attempt to win yesterday’s stage, perhaps as a way of showing that the T-Mobile team is still a contender even without its usual Tour leader, Jan Ullrich. But today’s victory was even more sweet considering the fact that the second place finisher in the stage was his T-Mobile teammate, Michael Rogers (AUS).

This place in today’s stage went to Danielle Bennati (ITA), but the big story was Tom Boonen’s fourth place finish in the stage, catapulting the Belgian QuickStep rider to first place in the General Classification and into the yellow jersey. Boonen is also the leader for the green jersey points, but since you can’t wear two jerseys at the same time, second place points leader Danielle Bennati will wear green in tomorrow’s 207km stage from Huy to Saint-Quentin.

At the end of today’s stage, here are the standings in the general classification:

1. Tom Boonen (BEL) Quickstep
2. Micahel Rogers (AUS) T-Mobile at 01″
3. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery at 05″
4. Thor Hushovd (NOR) Credit Agricole at 07″
5. Paolo Salvoldelli (ITA) Discovery at 15″
6. Danielle Bennati (ITA) Lampre at 15″
7. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak at 16″
8. Vladimir Karpets (RUS) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears at 17″
9. Serhiy Honchar (UKR) T-Mobile at 17″
10. Matthias Kessler (GER) T-Mobile at 17″