France's Tony Gallopin claimed the 11th stage of the Tour de France yesterday thanks to late attacks in a nervous finale.
German John Degenkolb was second and Italian Matteo Trentin took third place at the end of a 117-mile ride from Besancon.
Italian Vincenzo Nibali retained the yellow jersey as the overall leader after staying safe at the front of the bunch in the final descent.
He is two minutes and 23 seconds ahead of Team Sky's Richie Porte.
Gallopin powered away in the last climb. He was caught by Michal Kwiatkowski, Peter Sagan and Michael Rogers, but counter-attacked again with a mile and a half to go.
The Lotto-Belisol rider looked back several times but held off the peloton to cross the line with the bunch breathing down his neck.
"It's incredible. I want to thank my family because my father had told me that we should check up this stage, and it clearly helped," said Gallopin, who wore the yellow jersey during Monday's 10th stage.
"I would not have imagined that but I had marked that stage after coming close in Sheffield and Nancy."
Porte said that it was a day in which he had "a lot to lose and not much to gain", adding that he was looking forward to the first mountain stage tomorrow.
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