While the so-called “rock star” among cycling sprinters, Tom Boonen of Quick Step, won the sprint to the finish line to claim Stage 2 Tuesday, cycling’s leading team in the anti-doping has its first yellow jersey as a force in cycling.

Tyler Farrar of Boulder-based Slipstream-Chipotle p/b H30 edged ahead of Fabian Cancellara of CSC to take over as leader in the Tour of California.

Farrar, just 23, moved ahead of Cancellara by taking time intermediate sprint bonuses to move 1 second ahead of Cancellara in the overall classification.

Farrar finished sixth in the stage, behind Boonen, Heinrich Haussler of Gerolsteiner, Mario Cipollini of Rock Racing, High Road’s Mark Cavendish and Stage 1 winner J.J. Haedo of CSC. Twas a nice recovery by Cippo, who finished more than 5 minutes behind the peloton in Stage 1.

Boonen, a former world champion, has been on fire in the young season. The stage win Tuesday already was his fifth of the year, giving him wins in Australia, Qatar and now the U.S. He crossed the line in 5 hours 9 minutes 1 second after the start of the 115.8 mile stage from Santa Rosa to Sacramento on a cold, rainy day.

High Road Sports, captained by Tour of Missouri winner George Hincapie, leads the team competition, with Astana second and Gerolsteiner third. Except for road rash, Hincapie apparently wasn’t hurt seriously in his Stage 1 crash.

A disappointment so far in the ToC has been Ivan Dominguez of Toyota-United. Dominguez won two stages last year at the Tour of Missouri, but he didn’t finish in the lead pack in either Stage 1 or Stage 2 in California.

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