Frenchman Thomas Voeckler timed his move to perfection to clinch a maiden Tour de France win after an early breakaway surprised the sprinters’ teams on Wednesday.

Bouygues Telecom rider Voeckler attacked a group of breakaway riders with less than five kilometres to go in the 196.5-km fifth stage from Cap d’Agde to Perpignan and crossed the line seven seconds ahead of Russian Mikhail Ignatiev.

“I waited for so long for this to happen I had almost ceased to believe in my chances to win a Tour stage,” Voeckler said.

Briton Mark Cavendish won the peloton sprint to take third place, also seven seconds adrift of Voeckler, according to provisional results.

Swiss Fabian Cancellara retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey after finishing safely in the pack and still leads seven-times champion Lance Armstrong by a fraction of a second. American Armstrong and Astana team mate Alberto Contador of Spain had a quiet day.

“It was an interesting day. Everybody anticipated the wind with what happened two days ago,” Armstrong said. “We stayed out of trouble.”

With the wind blowing sideways, Cancellara’s Saxo Bank stepped up a gear around 62 km from the finish.

“With the wind, we wanted to accelerate and split the peloton for good but eventually we failed to do that. But I am not disappointed, the team was there, that’s what matters,” Cancellara told a news conference.