updated 1:58 p.m. ET July 5, 2006

ST QUENTIN, France - Tom Boonen kept his overall lead at the Tour de France on Wednesday — wearing the yellow jersey as he entered his native Belgium — but was upset with his showing on a day when Australia’s Robbie McEwen won a stage for the second time in this race.

Boonen, the world champion, faded in the final sprint of the 129-mile fourth stage and dropped back to fifth place. He slammed his right hand on his handlebars in apparent anger as he crossed the line.

The top of the overall standings remained unchanged. Boonen is one second ahead of world time trial champion Michael Rogers of Australia, with George Hincapie of the United States third.

McEwen overpowered his rivals and dedicated his 10th stage victory in nine Tours to American teammate Fred Rodriguez, who rode into a pothole and crashed out of the race in an accident-strewn stage Tuesday.

Rodriguez’s accident deprived McEwen of the rider assigned to lead him into the final stretches of sprint finishes, the Australian’s strong point.

Another Davitamon-Lotto teammate, Gert Steegmans, more than filled that gap Wednesday. McEwen covered the final 200 yards alone, easily outdistancing the field as he sped ahead.

McEwen, still one of the most explosive Tour riders at 34, compared Steegmans to a “locomotive.”

“He did it just perfectly,” McEwen said. “Even if I had written a script, it could not have gone any better.”

McEwen said the slight uphill finish at Saint-Quentin in northern France “ideally suited” his style of riding. Isaac Galvez of the Illes Balears team was second, with another Spaniard, Oscar Freire of the Rabobank squad, third.

Bonus points earned for the win enabled McEwen to take the sprinters’ green jersey from Boonen, who slipped back into second in that category.

McEwen said his priority was winning more stages, although he is also hoping to secure the green jersey title he won in 2002 and 2004.

The next two stages take the three-week race across northern France, through Normandy toward Brittany. They also are relatively flat and should again favor sprinters.

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Before Wednesday’s start in the Belgian town of Huy, 54 riders took doping blood tests. All were declared fit to race. Cycling’s governing body said Wednesday that doping tests before the Tour also were negative.

The first real challenge awaits in the long time trial Saturday, which should give a solid indication of the riders to beat in this depleted field.

Illness, a crash and a doping scandal have deprived five of the 20 teams of their leaders — making it anyone’s guess as to who will be the successor to seven-time winner Lance Armstrong. So far, the top Americans have emerged unscathed.

The biggest jolt to the Tour in years came on the eve of the race Friday when T-Mobile lead rider Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour champion, Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso of Team CSC and the fourth-place finisher last year, Francisco Mancebo of AG2R, were forced out over doping allegations.

A sick Danilo Di Luca of Liquigas pulled out Monday.

Young Spanish star Alejandro Valverde was the biggest casualty in Tuesday’s accidents. The Illes Balears leader fractured his right collarbone in a spill after hitting a teammate’s tire.

But despite all the absences, riders insist the winner in Paris on July 23 should not be considered any less a champion.

“There’s no reason to take away or put an asterisk next to the winner,” said American Bobby Julich of Team CSC. The Tour is “hard enough even if there are only 10 people in the race.”

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