Mark Cavendish took his second consecutive win and sixth career Tour De France stage win today in La Grande Motte but the real hero of the day was Team Agritubel's young talent Maxime Bouet, who was virtual Maillot Jaune for 140km on Stage 3.

Monday's stage dawned with sunny skies and a nice breeze blowing in from the Mediterranean, which kept temps down in the upper 80's, contrasted with yesterday's triple digits. 179 riders started Stage 3 in the picturesque Old Port of Marseilles. Skipping the local bouillabaisse lunch, the Tour peloton headed north from France's second city, up through the hilly hinterlands of Provence, then west along the coast towards the stage finish in La Grande Motte. The final 50km passed through the marshy coastal plain of la Camargue at the mouth of the Rhone River, western Europe's largest river delta and famous for French cowboys, or gardians who ride famous white Camaguais horses and raise fighting bulls for export to Spain.

After 2010 SRAM Force-equipped Maxime Bouet of Team Agritubel attacked just after 1km, he was quickly joined by Samuel Demoulin (Cofidis) and then Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel) and Koen de Kort (Skil-Shimano) bridged across to make it a four rider escape. At the first intermediate sprint of the day in La Fare-Les-Oliviers, the escape had their maximum lead of 12'15". Bouet was Virtual Maillot Jaune and the 22 year-old talent was having the race of his life. Soon after this point, Maillot Jaune Fabian Cancellara's Saxo Bank squad began the chase on their SRAM RED-equipped bikes and started to bring the breakaway back.

Eventually with 40km to go, the hard chase behind and crosswinds split the main peloton into two groups and the front runners, including Maillot Jaune Cancellara, absorbed the breakaway to form a front group of 27 riders. Along with Cancellara and Bouet, SRAM Red equipped riders up front included Lance Armstrong and two Astana teammates, Zubeldia and Popovych. Armstrong showed why he has won the Tour seven times today as the 37 year-old American was in the right place at the right time and moved into 3rd overall, 40" behind Cancellara. Armstrong tweeted post-stage "St3 done - gnarly! Crosswinds all day and a group snuck off in the last 25k behind Columbia/HTC's tempo. I was lucky enough 2 b there. Had Popo and Zubeldia w/ me and no other GC favs in the front. Gained valuable time but most likely minor in scheme of 3 weeks. Onward."

Milram had Fabian Wegmann and Linus Gerdemann up front, while Bouet's Agritubel teammate Romain Feillu took the group sprint for 28th, 41" behind the front runners, and some big names like Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans lost time today. Tuesday's Stage 4 Team Time Trial in Montpellier will be spectacular as always, with SRAM Red sponsored teams Astana and Saxo Bank among the race favorites.