Tour de France: Freire celebrates a rare Tour double for Spain

Journalists were rushing for the record books after Oscar Freire outgunned the Australian Robbie McEwen and the German Erik Zabel in yesterday's bunch sprint in Saarbrucken.

Freire's victory was the first time in 21 years a rider wearing the world champion's rainbow jersey had crossed the line of a Tour stage in first place. The last was the ferocious Frenchman Bernard Hinault, who did it in 1981 en route to his third overall victory.

As if that was not rare enough, Spanish victories in Tour bunch sprints come with the frequency of the proverbial blue moon – in fact the last occurred only thanks to a commissaire's decision in 1987, when the Italian Guido Bontempi was disqualified for illegal manouvres in the bunch sprint at Troyes. The Asturias-born sprinter Manuel Jorge Dominguez got the winner's bouquet instead.

Before that, the last success in a bunch sprint for Spain – traditionally better at flying up cols than elbows-out action in the Tour's usually flatter first week – was in 1978, with the legendary Mikel Mari Lasa's victory in Biarritz.

For Freire as well, too long had passed since he had last cracked open a champagne bottle on a podium. His previous 2002 win was in February's season-opening Tour of Mallorca. Ironically enough, the 26-year-old had been unwilling to ride this year's Tour, his first ever, because of his poor form.

As late as five days before the race began in Luxembourg, he bitterly told journalists that he was only taking part because his contract – and the team's – would end this December. But his huge grin as he crossed the line a bike length ahead of McEwen and almost two ahead of Zabel told a wholly different story.

Best known for taking two World Championships in three years, the Spaniard put his historic victory down to "having a bit of luck and getting the right kind of support from the team in the final kilometres".

Furthermore, although the unknown Rubens Bertogliati has managed to maintain his fragile hold on the race leader's yellow jersey for another day, thanks to a tantalising two-second advantage, Freire is now one of a long list of candidates to take over from the Swiss rider given that he is less than 20 seconds behind – one time bonus for a stage win.

For Telekom, desperate to win on home soil following the recent scandals surrounding Jan Ullrich, Freire's success was another nail in the coffin of their Tour aspirations.

As the German journalist Andreas Zellmer, following the Tour for the 19th time, put it: "A victory today would have deflected public attention from the Ullrich case and shown the sponsor that Telekom may have been battered by the Ullrich case but they have not thrown in the towel." Instead, Zabel's third place brought him neither a stage win or the yellow jersey.

A full 19min 22sec after the world champion and Zabel had roared across the line, the arrival of the Norwegian rider Thor Hushovd at the finish told another story.

Hushovd had formed part of a promising early break with two Frenchmen, Sylvain Chavanel and Stéphane Berges. However, after nearly 100 kilometres of racing the Crédit Agricole rider had begun to suffer cramps, which saw him rapidly overtaken by the peloton. He was doubled up with pain, and not even emergency massages by team staff seemed likely to prevent him from becoming the first of this year's 189 starters to quit.

Then, when the 24-year-old did start pedalling stiffly towards the finish, he had to thread his way through a public – estimated at over a million – convinced that the cavalcade had long since passed by.

Despite riding the last 30km alone, he made it through, and now has the dubious honour of being the Tour's lanterne rouge, or last man overall, by a margin of 11 minutes.

The defending champion, Lance Armstrong, took things easy, finishing 61st. The American, now fourth overall, seemed to enjoy the day. "I was surprised by the huge crowds," he said. "I was impressed."

* Britain's David Millar consulted his team doctor suffering from headaches yesterday, but is fit to carry on.

Yesterday's Tour De France results

STAGE 2 (Luxembourg to Saarbrücken, 181km, 112.2 miles) 1 O Freire (Sp) Mapei 4hr 19min 51sec; 2 R McEwen (Aus) Lotto; 3 E Zabel (Ger) Telekom; 4 B Cooke (Aus) Française des Jeux; 5 J Kirsipuu (Est) AG2R; 6 A Hauptman (Sloven) Tacconi; 7 P Horillo (Sp) Mapei; 8 F Rodriguez (US) Domo Farm Frites; 9 G Matteo Fagnini (It) Telekom; 10 S O'Grady (Aus) Crédit Agricole; 11 D Hondo (Ger) Telekom; 12 J Svorada (Sloven) Lampre; 13 F Simon (Fr) Bonjour; 14 P Bossoni (It) Tacconi; 15 N Mattan (Bel) Cofidis; 16 S Ivanov (Rus) Fassa Bortolo; 17 J E Gutierrez (Sp) Kelme-Costa Blanca; 18 M Hvastija (Sloven) Alessio; 19 L Pagliarini (Bra) Lampre Daikin; 20 G Trampusch (Aut) Mapei-Quick Step all same time. Selected: 29 R Bertogliati (Swit) Lampre; 58 L Jalabert (Fr) CSC-Tiscali; 61 L Armstrong (US) US Postal Service; 74 R Virenque (Fr) Domo Farm Frites; 76 D Millar (GB) Cofidis; 103 J Beloki (Sp) Once-Eroski.

Overall standings: 1 Bertogliati 9:18:12; 2 Zabel +2sec; 3 Jalabert +3; 4 Armstrong s/t; 5 R Rumsas (Lith) Lampre +6; 6 Botero +7; 7 Millar +8; 8 L Brochard (Fr) Jean Delatour +9; 9 Freire +11; 10 D Frigo (It) Tacconi s/t; 11 I Gonzalez Galdeano (Sp) Once-Eroski +12; 12 McEwen +14; 13 Beloki +16; 14 L Bodrogi (Hun) Mapei; 15 B McGee (Aus) Française des Jeux s/t; 16 F Mancebo (Sp) Banesto +17; 17 S Honchar (Ukr) Fassa Bortolo +18; 18 T Hamilton (US) CSC-Tiscali +19; 19 A Peron (It) CSC-Tiscali; 20 L Leipheimer (US) Rabobank s/t.

Points classification: 1 Zabel 62; 2 Freire 57; 3 McEwen 56; 4 O'Grady 40; 5 Bertogliati 35; 6 Cooke 29; 7 Simon 29; 8 Gutierrez 26; 9 F Baldato (It) Fassa Bortolo 24; 10 L Brochard (Fr) Jean Delatour 24. King of the Mountains: 1 S Berges (Fr) A2R 26pts; 2 C Mengin (Fr) FdJ 23; 3 L Dierckxsens (Bel) Lampre 15. Best young rider: 1 Bertogliati; 2 Millar; 3 I Basso (It) Fassa Bortolo +23sec.