Australia's Simon Gerrans of the Orica-GreenEdge team won the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday in a sprint finish at the end of the 145km ride from Ajaccio to Calvi on Corsica.
Gerrans edged out Slovakia's Peter Sagan, last year's green jersey winner, in a photo finish with Spain's Jose Joaquin Rojas just behind in third.
Belgium's Jan Bakelants, winner of the second stage, holds on to the overall race leader's yellow jersey by a one-second margin after coming in as part of the pack in 19th place.
Meanwhile, Sagan's second place allows him to take the green jersey for the best sprinter from Marcel Kittel, the German who won the opening stage of the race in Bastia on Saturday.
Gerrans' victory is his second in the Tour, with his previous stage win dating back to 2008. His is the first win for an Australian in the race since Cadel Evans won the fourth stage en route to taking the yellow jersey in 2011.
The defeat on the line would have been hard to take for Sagan, who also had to settle for second place in Sunday's stage in Ajaccio behind Bakelants, but pulling on the green jersey will serve as a welcome consolation.
{{/usCountry}}The defeat on the line would have been hard to take for Sagan, who also had to settle for second place in Sunday's stage in Ajaccio behind Bakelants, but pulling on the green jersey will serve as a welcome consolation.
{{/usCountry}}For Bakelants, who is supposed to be a support rider for Radioshack-Leopard team leader Andy Schleck, there was quiet satisfaction at retaining yellow, but that was coupled with the sobering realisation that he is unlikely to keep it for much longer. "Probably tomorrow I will lose the yellow jersey. It will be painful but I have to think about the nice days I've had in it," he said.