AUSTRALIA'S run of glory at the Tour de France continued with Simon Gerrans surprising himself - let alone everyone else - by winning the first stage in the Alps by outsprinting two fellow breakaways.

Gerrans (Credit Agricole), 28, won the 182km 15th stage from Embrun that took the Tour from France and into Italy and then to the summit finish Prato Nevoso where he finally beat Spaniard Edoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) by three seconds and American Danny Pate (Garmin-Chipotle) by 10 seconds.

"Emotion-wise it is still hasn't really sunk in yet. I will still be pinching myself for the next few days and probably for sometime to come," an elated Gerrans said afterwards. "But it is just such a fantastic thing. It is such a great thing in my career to say I have now won a stage of the Tour. It is amazing."

One of the first people Gerrans credited for his win was the person who first got him into cycling - Australian Phil Anderson who in 1981 was the first Australian to ever claim the leader's yellow jersey.

Anderson, who is on this year's Tour leading a group of cyclo-tourists, used to live in Jameison in north-east Victoria where Gerrans originates. It was Anderson who advised Gerrans to take up cycling as a form of rehabilitation from surgery for a shattered knee sustained in a moto-cross accident.

"Since I first started cycling as a form of rehabilitation for my knee, there has always been something to aim for," Gerrans said. "In the last few years has been all about trying to win a stage of the Tour.

"I have gone from starting to ride my bike just to get to bend my knee again to now winning at the Tour de France. It is just an amazing journey."

While Gerrans got the chance to savour the thrill of mounting the Tour podium, the day ended with Australian Cadel Evans not being required for the official protocol as he lost his overall Tour lead.

Evans (Silence-Lotto) was victim to a barrage of attacks by the crack CSC squad of Luxembourg's Frank Schleck who took the yellow jersey from the Australian who has now dropped to third overall.

Schleck leads the Tour by seven seconds over Austrian Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner) and eight seconds over Evans whose fall in place is far from a negative outcome - in many ways it is a positive.

By no longer leading the Tour, Evans can liberate himself of the pressure that has been on him to defend it against a team as strong as CSC - especially with Evans' team being anything but strong.

He can now recover, regroup and spend the last two days in the Alps after Monday's rest day aiming to minimise any times losses and throw his all into winning the Tour in Saturday's stage 20 time trial.

Evans, who was again left without any teammates to help him on the 11.4km finishing ascent, rode very well against the onslaught; even though eventually finished nine seconds behind Schleck.

It was a thrilling battle that raged behind Gerrans and his companions for the day - initially numbering three riders, not two with fourth place Spaniard Jouse Luis Arrieta (AG2r) dropped on the last climb.

And it all ended with Kohl leading the overall contenders across the finish line 4 minutes and 3 seconds behind Gerrans. On his wheel was Spain's Carlos Satre (CSC) in sixth place and one of the pre-Tour favourites Ajejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) in seventh place at 4 min 12secs.

There was still a gap between them and a number other favourites, including the defiant Evans.

Russian Denis Menchov (Rabobank), the rider that Evans has long said is the biggest individual danger to his Tour hopes, was eighth at 4 mins 23 secs, while Schleck was ninth at 4min 41secs.

Another two seconds further back came American Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) who began the day placed third overall, but finished it in fifth at 39 secs. Evans was 13th at 4mins 50secs.

The stage began under a torrent of rain, but that did little to stymie the attacks which finally led to the formation of the decisive break of the day that included Martinez who started it, Pate, Arrieta and then Gerrans who jumped across to join the three riders at the 16km mark. As soon as they settled into their attack they forged out a maximum lead of 17mins 10secs at the feedzone after 102km - 56km passed the first major climb of the day, 20.5km-long the Col Agnel which saw many riders dropped.

One of those who fell off the pace at that climb was Gerrans's team and roomate NSW's Mark Renshaw who has been suffering from a stomach bug and fever for three days and finally abandoned.