Latvia's Romans Vainsteins came second while Jimmy Casper was third. Festina rider Christophe Moreau retained the yellow jersey.

Lance Armstrong rode home amongst the peleton in 49th place. He finished with the same time.

The Tour's second stage starts on Monday between Calais and the Belgian town of Antwerp.

Zabel, who has topped the sprinters' classification in the last five Tours, pushed for the line as what looked like the whole peloton closed in on him after the 195 kilometres from Saint-Omer.

The achievement was made all the more remarkable by the fact that there was not a pink Telekom jersey in sight when he crossed the line.

All the German team's efforts are being geared towards helping Jan Ullrich challenge Armstrong for the yellow jersey so Zabel was forced to go it alone today.

But the World Cup-holder, who turned 31 yesterday, believed he had benefited from the situation to win ninth stage in the Tour.

"I didn't make too much of it and the difference was I felt totally relaxed and that helped me," he said.

"I didn't really worry about it. Perhaps not many people thought I would win and it worked out OK for me."

Britain's David Millar raced with bandaging on his left leg and arm following his fall in the prologue in which he had hoped to repeat his success of last year.

The 24-year-old did not look comfortable and finished over five minutes off the pace and is in 177th place.

There was a confusing case of plains, trains and automobiles when FDF's Jacky Durand and Jean Delatour's Christophe Oriol, who had coasted into an eight-minute lead over the flat expanses of today's stage, were held up at a rail crossing.

The duo looked unconcerned as they chatted and signed autographs for fans while they waited for the train to pass as the race organisers timed the delay at three minutes, 20 seconds.

But the commissaire's car only halted the peloton for two minutes in compensation for the lost time.

No explanation was offered immediately for the discrepancy and the peloton picked up the pace soon after, driven forward by the AG2R team, as the pursuit of the front two began in earnest.

Today's stage was primed for sprinters and the Durand-Oriol break came under increasing pressure as the finishing line drew closer.

AG2R made their intentions clear as they formed a sprint train at the front of the peloton as the gap to the breakaway dropped under six minutes.

With world sprint champion Vainsteins in their ranks, Domo surged forward to give their man a platform from which to attack the line at the 58km-mark.

Rabobank, whose Erik Dekker was one of the surprise packages of last year's Tour with three stage wins, staked their claim by taking over from AG2R at the head of the peloton.

Festina followed up with Florent Brard, wearing the best young rider's white jersey following his fifth place in the prologue, leading the charge.

As the breakaway duo started up the final climb of the day on Cote du Cop Gris-Nez, the race entered a critical stage.

Both Durand and Oriol struggled up the category four climb as the peloton closed.

They made the summit before they were caught but were soon reeled in as the race reached the final 16km.

Durand at least had the consolation of earning the King of Mountains' jersey but Oriol - with only one professional win in his career, a stage-victory in the 1999 Dauphine Libre - had nothing to show for over 100km of exertion.

Brad McGee made a late break for FDF with 5km to go and CSC's Francisco Cerezo chased after him.

The Australian has the speed to win from that position but fell while Cerezo was swallowed up by the peloton which approached the finishing line en masse.

Breaks came from all across the line but it was Zabel on the right of the pack who had the experience if not the support to secure first place.