Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych won stage 12 of the Tour de France from Luchon to Carcassonne as the country celebrated Bastille Day.
The Discovery Channel rider had been part of a breakaway quartet for over 100 kilometres and made a decisive solo break three kilometres from home to finish 27 seconds clear.
Alessandro Ballan of Lampre and Rabobank's Oscar Freire followed second and third, while the remaining member of the long-time leading group, Credit Agricole's Christophe le Mevel, trailed in in fourth.
Floyd Landis retains the yellow jersey with an eight second lead over Cyril Dessel.
Popovych's win helped him close to within four minutes 15 seconds of Landis in 10th place, but he admitted he faces an uphill battle to push for the yellow jersey.
'It's going to be difficult to gain time, even now - we'll have to see in the next couple of days,' he told Eurosport.
'Yesterday was very hard, and today I just wanted to attack and attack.
'I knew if I did I could beat Oscar (Freire), and Ballan was the guy I really had to worry about.'
The 26-year-old's success helped rescue a dismal day for his team, who saw both Benjamin Noval and the injured Paolo Salvoldelli pull out of the Tour, the latter having had stitches in his forehead after a collision with a spectator on Thursday.
'We've got to try and get people in the breaks and try to win a stage or two,' Popovych added.
Le Mevel was delighted to have challenged on the day, and said: 'Popovych and Ballan have won big races in the past, so with riders like that it's always difficult.
'I got in the break and had a bit of luck, and then I managed to go all the way to the end - it's great.'
Landis made no attempt to chase down the leading group, and his Phonak team director John Lelangue revealed: 'This morning I took the overall ranking and drew a line at the riders who are nine minutes behind Landis to know exactly who we could allow to escape.
'Popovych is exactly on this line so we had to control the pace of the peloton to ensure that he didn't get a big advantage.'
Davitamon's Robbie McEwen still leads the points standings despite failing to add to his 217 points, the honours being shared by six different riders on the day's two sprint sections.
Spaniard Freire closed to within a point of second-placed Tom Boonen by picking up six points from the second sprint at Mirepoix, while Daniele Bennati's win on the first sprint cemented his fourth place in the race for the green jersey.
Michael Rasmussen picked up 12 points in the King of the Mountains standings, lifting him into a share of third place, but David de la Fuente still holds the polka dot jersey going into stage 13 from Beziers to Montelimar.
Leading Positions after Stage 12
1 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel Team 4:34:58
2 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Lampre-Fondital at 0:27
3 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank at 0:29
4 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Credit Agricole at 0:35
5 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quic Step - Innergetic at 4mins 25secs
6 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon - Lotto
7 Francisco Ventoso (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodirs all same time
Gerneral Classification after Stage 12:
1 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 53:57:30
2 Cyril Dessel (Fra) AG2R at 8secs
3 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank at 1min 01secs
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto at 1:17
5 Carlos Sastre (Spa) CSC at 1:52
6 Andres Kloden (Ger) T-Mobile Team at 2:29
7 Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile Team at 3:22
