Tony Martin has finally grabbed hold of the race leader’s yellow jersey with a brilliant solo victory on the Tour de France cobbled fourth stage.
The German three-time world timetrial champion broke clear of a reduced peloton with 3.3km left on Tuesday and held off the charging pack to win by three seconds from John Degenkolb and Peter Sagan at the end of the 223.5km stage from Seraing to Cambrai.
Having missed out on the yellow jersey by a matter of seconds on each of the first three stages, Martin overhauled 2013 Tour champion Chris Froome, who now sits second with American Tejay Van Garderen third.
Martin, 30, had spent the first three days in second place having lost out to Australian Rohan Dennis by five seconds in the opening stage timetrial.
He ended the second stage three seconds behind Fabian Cancellara, who had taken a four second bonus on the line for finishing third.
Froome then finished second on the third stage to earn a six second bonus that left him just one second ahead of Martin.
But the daring German was not to be denied on Tuesday and made a typically brazen attack to secure a memorable victory that left him 12 seconds ahead of Froome and 25 seconds clear of Van Garderen.
After a hectic last 50km, including 11.5km of cobbles across six sectors, the ‘fantastic four’ favourites of Froome, reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali, two-time winner Alberto Contador and Colombian Nairo Quintana all finished in the lead group of around 25 riders.
The big loser on the day, though, was French hope Thibaut Pinot, third overall last year.
He suffered a mechanical problem on the penultimate cobbled sector, had a tantrum and eventually lost around three minutes, leaving him six minutes back in total and with an uphill struggle to compete for a podium finish.
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