Australian Bradley McGee will spend his second night in the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey after the crash-marred first stage in which compatriot Robbie McEwen came second to take the green points jersey.

A crash just before the final kilometre of the 168km ride from the outskirts of Paris looked to have snagged 27-year-old fdjeux.com rider McGee but moments later he crossed the finish line with team-mate Sandy Casar.

"Thankfully nothing's broken, everything's okay but I'm a bit worried about Jimmy," said McGee, referring to his teammate Jimmy Casper who was taken to hospital after flying over his handlebars while riding at over 55km/kph.

"It was a calm stage until then," said McGee.

"Having a crash is unfortunate but it's something that sometimes can't be avoided in cycling."

McEwen, the 31-year-old sprinter with the Belgian Lotto team, took hold of the green jersey he won last year after stopping Erik Zabel from winning it for a seventh straight year.

Another Aussie sprinter, fdjeux.com's Baden Cooke, came fourth to notch up his sixth top seven finish on the Tour after an impressive debut last year.

The stage was won by Italy's Alessandro Petacchi, the Fassa Bortolo sprinter who recently won six stages in the Tour of Italy where McEwen himself won two, coming second behind his Italian nemesis on a few occasions.

"It's always the same, second place," McEwen lamented after the race. "Tomorrow's another day and hopefully the team will be able to work as hard for me then as they did today."

The polka dot jersey for the best climber went to fdjeux.com rider Christophe Mengin, who was part of a three-man breakaway from the peloton which was caught 20km from the line.

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