Australia's Luke Roberts won the third stage of the Tour of Murcia in a mass sprint finish that involved the race favourites, including seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
Roberts, who rides for Team Milram, edged Uzbekistan's Sergey Lagutin and Spain's Josep Jufre to the line at the end of the 166.5-kilometre stage between Las Torres de Cotillas and Alhama de Murcia.
Jufre took over the leader's yellow jersey from South Africa's Robert Hunter, who won the first two stages but withdrew from the event earlier Friday because his wife went into labour.
Armstrong, who is on only his second stage race of the year, finished with the same time as the leader, as did Britain's Olympic gold medallist Bradley Wiggins and last year's Tour of Murcia winner Dennis Menchov of Russia.
Much will now depend on Saturday's time trial to decide who will win the five-day event.
