The French rider Sylvain Chavanel broke almost from the starting gun to win a rain-soaked second stage of the Tour de France in which most of the favourites crashed.
The 31 year old attacked after 11 kilometres in the 201-kilometre ride but was joined by seven other riders before finally braking on his own to snatch his second Tour stage victory after a previous win in 2008.
The three-times French time-trial champion also took the yellow jersey off Swiss Fabian Cancellara.
Chavanel leads the Swiss by 2 minutes 57 seconds with German Tony Martin third a further ten seconds in arrears.
The Belgium region of Spa is known for its water but there was far too much on the roads for most riders and a series of crashes involving the leading Tour contenders led the peloton to stage a protest by refusing to sprint to the finish line
The other two favourites in this Tour, defending champion Alberto Contador and seven-times winner Lance Armstrong, were held up by the large crash and found themselves chasing behind the first pack.
