Tom Boonen tightened his grip on the green jersey with victory in stage 12 of the Tour de France in Castres.

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• How it happened
• Images of stage 12

The Quickstep team delivered a textbook display of sprinting, over the final few kilometres, with Gert Steegmans peeling away 250 metres from the finish to allow Boonen to overpower Erik Zabel and Robbie Hunter, who finished second and third respectively.

Race leader Michael Rasmussen finished safely in the pack, along with the rest of the contenders for the yellow jersey, while Fabian Cancellara conserved his energy for Saturday's time-trial, rolling in over six minutes off the pace.

The high tempo of the peloton throughout the early part of the stage stymied a whole host of attacks from the likes of Juan Manuel Garate and Nicolas Vogondy, and it was not until after 50 kilometres of racing that a breakaway succeeded, with Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom) and Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel) going clear.

T-Mobile Marcus Burghardt decided he would try to bridge the gap once it was clear their advantage was growing, but after spending a short while caught in no-man's land he was swallowed up by the pack.

Britain's Charlie Wegelius led the peloton up the biggest climb of the day, the second-category Montée de la Jeante, before Lampre's Marzio Bruseghin put the hammer down in earnest on the descent.

The lead was soon whittled down to two minutes with just over 20 kilometres to go, and despite the admirable co-operation between the lead duo, their time out in front finally came to an end

By now the Quickstep train was well in position, Boonen fourth in line. With arch-nemesis Robbie McEwen no longer in the race, he was always hot favourite on the long straight finish, and indeed he didn't disappoint, taking his second stage win of this year's Tour, and his sixth overall.