Piil and Marc Wauters raced away and they stretched their advantage to over 1'50". But with around 25 km to go riders from Lotto, Fassa Bortolo and other sprinter's teams took to the front of the peloton. The lead of Wauters and Piil was slowly reduced until they were caught with less than 2 km to the finish. In a mass sprint veteran Jaan Kirsipuu broke early and held off Robbie McEwen to win by the smallest of margins. It was his fourth career Tour win. After the time bonuses from intermediate sprints were counted Cancellara remained in yellow, four seconds clear of Hushovd and ten ahead of Armstrong. Stage 2 5 July 2004 — Charleroi to Namur, The stage was 197 km. Namur, the Walloon capital, is to the east of Charleroi and only 30 km away. The route of the race described a rough square to the west, with both cities in the top east corner. Again the route was mostly flat, marked by only two cat-4 climbs, so a mass sprint finish was almost certain. The race started in clouds but ended in sunshine. The race began with a number of early attacks and after the first climb at 7 km a group of six riders slipped away. Their lead grew quickly and by 40 km raced they were over four minutes clear and were working hard together. The lead peaked at 5', but the sprinter teams Quick-Step and Crédit Agricole finally began to push the pace in the peloton. The lead group held on, their time falling slowly, but as other teams took a turn their advantage fell away and they were caught with 23 km to go. Despite the remaining distance the peloton was held together by Quickstep and later Fassa Bortolo. The mass sprint ended in a clear victory for Robbie McEwen, second – despite breaking his bike at 20 km to go – was Thor Hushovd. With the 12" time bonus for his position the Norwegian National Champion took the maillot jaune, the first Norwegian to ever wear it. There were a number of crashes during the race and Gian Matteo Fagnini broke his collarbone and was forced to withdraw. Stage 3 6 July 2004 — Waterloo to Wasquehal, This was another fairly flat stage, of 210 km, tending south before turning west and leading the Tour out of Belgium and into France.