FORGES-LES-EAUX, France -- Italy's Mario Cipollini used a sprint finish to claim Sunday's first stage of the the 1997 Tour de France, cycling's most prestigious race.

Cipollini, a member of the Saeco team, won the 119-mile trek, overtaking Belgium's Tom Steels and Frenchman Frederic Moncassin to earn his fifth career stage victory and take the overall leader's yellow jersey from Britain's Chris Boardman.

Steels, a member of Mapei-GB, edged out Moncassin of the Gan team by a few inches for second place.

Cipollini holds a 10-second lead in the overall standings over Boardman and a 12-second lead over Telekom member Jan Ullrich of Germany, who finished runner-up last year.

THE FIRST STAGE WAS MARRED by a crash 62 miles from the finish involving 12 riders. One of the riders, Frenchman Gilles Talmant of Aubervilliers 93, suffered a broken arm in the crash.

The fall held up about 30 cyclists, including defending champion Bjarne Riis of Denmark and top contenders Alex Zulle of Switzerland and Luc Leblanc of France.

On Monday, the riders will embark on a 163-mile jaunt from St. Valery-En-Caux to Vire, the longest of the 21 stages.

Riis, who now lives in Luxembourg, took the leader's yellow jersey during the weather-shortened ninth stage last year and did not relinguish it the rest of the way, edging Ullrich by one minute, 41 seconds, to become the first Danish cyclist to win the Tour de France.

Spain's Miguel Indurain, the only man to win five consecutive Tour de France titles, retired from the sport after finishing 11th in last year's race. Indurain won the Tour from 1991-95.

The riders will reach the finish line along the Champs Elysees in Paris on July 27.

Tour de France teams