Belgium’s Thomas De Gendt rode solo to take stage eight of the Tour de France as France’s Julian Alaphilippe regained the overall lead with a third-place finish.
De Gendt, who rides for Lotto Soudal, triumphed in a time of 5 hours 17sec on the 200 kilometres route from Mâcon to Saint-Étienne.
His winning margin over Frenchman Thibaut Pinot of Groupama-FDJ was six seconds with Deceuninck-QuickStep’s Alaphilippe coming home in the same time as his compatriot.
"From 70km to go, I just kept riding full gas until last climb," De Gendt, whose only previous Tour de France stage win came in 2016, said.
"The bunch was coming closer but I had to go solo and stay ahead of them.
"I had really good feelings all day."
Defending champion Geraint Thomas of Great Britain recovered from a crash with 17km remaining to finish among the 32 riders that were 26 seconds adrift, including his main rivals.
Alaphilippe has retaken the general classification lead from Italy’s Giulio Ciccone.
.@ThibautPinot and @alafpolak1 complete the podium, with the latter taking the Yellow Jersey! 💛
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 13, 2019
Pinot et Alaphilippe complètent le podium, ce qui permet au second de reprendre le Maillot Jaune ! 💛#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/9BQPtfwRTs
He had lost it to the Trek-Segafredo rider after stage six.
The overall leading time stands at 34:17:59.
Ciccone is 23 seconds behind in second, while Pinot is 53 seconds off the pace in third.
New Zealand’s George Bennett of Team Jumbo-Visma occupies fourth spot.
He trails Alaphilippe by 1:10, with Team Ineos' Thomas a further two seconds back.
Stage nine is due to take place tomorrow.
It is a 170.5km route from Saint-Étienne to Brioude.
The 21-stage event is scheduled to conclude on July 28.
