Cycling: Matthias Kessler produced a strong finish to win an action-packed third stage of the Tour de France today as world champion Tom Boonen claimed the yellow jersey.
A five-man breakaway of Jose Luis Arrieta, Unai Etxebarria, Christophe Laurent, Jerome Pineau and Jens Voigt had led for much of the day but they were reeled in close to the finish and Kessler made the most of his opportunity to take the victory.
Boonen, who finished fourth today, now has a one-second lead over Michael Rogers at the top of the leaderboard at the end of stage three, which saw race favourite Alejandro Valverde retire with a broken collarbone.
Arrieta, Voigt, Etxebarria, Laurent and Pineau had earlier broken away after just 18km in searing heat in Luxembourg.
They led the chasing pack by over six minutes at one point before the Credit Agricole team - attempting to keep Norwegian Thor Hushovd in the yellow jersey - launched a serious bid to try and catch the group 70km from the finish.
Arrieta then tried to break alone but was swallowed up by the field just before the Cauberg climb.
As the peloton moved down the narrow summit, Kessler broke clear of some of the world's top sprinters and climbers and held them off to win by five seconds, ahead of T-Mobile team-mate Rogers, Daniele Bennati of Lampre-Fondital and Quick-Step-Innergetic's Boonen.
Kessler's team suffered severe disruption on the eve of the tour as 1997 winner Jan Ullrich was pulled out by his team after they were informed by UCI - the sport's governing body - that the German rider has been involved in a blood-doping probe in Spain. PA