JOIN USAustralian Simon Gerrans gave the Orica-GreenEdge team their first win in the Tour de France by outsprinting the favourite in Monday's third stage.
Gerrans beat pre-stage favourite Peter Sagan of Slovakia and Spain's Jose Joaquin Rojas at the end of a 145.5-km, hilly trek from Ajaccio through beautiful scenery along the Corsican west coast.
Gerrans's win, his second in the Tour after he took the 15th stage in 2008, came two days after his team bus caused mayhem when it got stuck under the finish line's overhead banner minutes before the fast-approaching peloton reached the end of the first stage.
Belgian Jan Bakelants retained the overall leader's yellow jersey when he finished in the leading bunch after his RadioShack-Leopard team controlled the pace in the final part of the stage.
"It's great. All went perfectly well, my team took great care of me after the last climb. I had good legs, I'm happy to win," said Gerrans, who won the Milan-San Remo classic last year.
Chris Froome's Sky team mate Geraint Thomas, riding with a small fracture in his pelvis, struggled all day near the end of the pack.
The second-category climb to the Col de Marsolino, 15 kms from the finish, was too much for the sprint specialists, including German Marcel Kittel who lost his green jersey for the points classification to Sagan.
Australian Simon Clarke capped a remarkable day for Orica-GreenEdge when he was voted the most aggressive rider of the stage after spending most of his time in the day's breakaway.
On Sunday, Belgian Jan Bakelants, a last-minute inclusion on the RadioShack-Leopard Tour de France roster, rode his luck to win the second stage by one second and take the overall leader's yellow jersey.
Bakelants powered away from a six-man late breakaway group with just over one kilometre to go on the 156 kms hilly ride from Bastia and crossed the line with the bunch breathing down his neck.
Slovakian Peter Sagan finished second and Polish champion Michal Kwiatowski took third place.
"It's the best day of my cycling career," said Bakelants. "It's hard to believe after all the problems I had this year and the previous years.