RINALDO NOCENTINI claimed the yellow jersey on the day race favourite Alberto Contador flexed his muscles in the Tour de France’s first mountain stage.

France’s Brice Feillu won stage seven, a 224km hike from Barcelona to Andorra, but it is what went on just behind the gutsy Agritubel rider that will grab the headlines.

AG2R La Mondiale’s Nocentini, part of a nine-man breakaway group which included Feillu and led the field almost all stage, finished fourth and far enough clear of the big guns at the top of the general classification to take the maillot jaune.

The Italian started the day in 32nd position in the overall standings but ended it six seconds clear of secondplaced Contador, who broke away from a stretched-out peloton in a punishing stageending, hors-categorie climb up to Arcalis to finish ninth.

The Spaniard’s late show of strength pulled him clear of Astana team-mate Lance Armstrong, who came home 22 seconds later.

Armstrong, firmly put in his place by Contador yesterday, will head into stage eight today third in the standings, two seconds behind Contador.

Fabian Cancellara lost his grip on the yellow jersey after being dropped by the peloton 5.5km from the end, midway through the final climb. He plummets down the standings after finishing more than eight-and-a-half minutes behind the leaders.

Feillu, a winner in six hours 11 minutes and 31 seconds, was followed home by second-placed Christophe Kern (Cofidis) and Milram’s Johannes Frohlinger, who was third.

But the little-known Nocentini – riding in his first Tour – stole the limelight. He is the first Italian in nine years to lead the Tour.

This first mountain stage was expected to shake up the general classification. It did just that and it was during the closing stages of the climb up the slopes of Arcalis to the 2,240m summit finish that the real action came.

Prior to that, the breakaway group of nine riders – Nocentini, Feillu, Kern, Frohlinger, Jose Ivan Gutierrez, Egoi Martinez, Christophe Riblon, Aleksandr Kuschynski and Jerome Pineau – had hogged the lead.

After the descent from the third-category Port del Comte, during which Cancellara suffered two punctures, it was uphill all the way to the finish – the third-highest mountain-top finish ever in the Tour.