With an audacity that stunned his rivals, Fabian Cancellara sealed his second stage win in this year’s Tour de France, only 24 hours after crashing in Monday’s stage finish in Ghent, Belgium. The 26-year-old Swiss increased his overall advantage to 33sec over Andreas Kloden, of Germany, and may retain the yellow jersey until Saturday’s first mountain stage.

Cancellara surprised the peloton with a turn of speed in the final kilometre that took him past an exhausted four-man breakaway and clear of the field. His triumph was the most pulsating moment of a long, flat stage that at times verged on the soporific.

With the convoy rolling towards the dark forests north of Paris, the peloton called a truce. Battered and bruised by Monday's mass crash and racing into a headwind on the 236km route from Waregem to Compiègne – the longest day on this year’s Tour – the 187 riders opted for a go-slow.

The final hour may have been fast and furious, but racing had begun in earnest only after the Tour had crossed into the Oise department with a mere 60km to race.

As the main field headed across the Pas de Calais and the Somme at little more than training pace, Nicolas Vogondy and Matthieu Ladagnous, the French riders, built a ten-minute lead on the peloton. Only when they were joined by Stéphane Auge, their countryman, and Frederik Willems, of Belgium, did the race pick up pace.

Fortunes have ebbed and flowed in this Tour. The King of the Mountains jersey slipped off the shoulders of David Millar, the Briton, yesterday when Auge, his closest rival in the classification, led the breakaway over the day’s only classified climb, the Côte de Blerancourt, a category four. Millar, whose objective now is to win a stage, chose not to defend his hold on the polka dot jersey, although he remains in third place overall, 41sec behind Cancellara.

RESULTS

Third stage: (Waregem to Compiègne, 236.5km): 1, F Cancellara (Switz, Team CSC) 6hr 36min 15sec; 2, E Zabel (Ger, Milram); 3, D Napolitano (It, Lampre); 4, T Boonen (Bel, Quick-Step); 5, R Hunter (SA, Barloworld); 6, R Foerster (Ger, Gerolsteiner); 7, R McEwen (Aus, Predictor, Lotto); 8, B Eisel (Austria, T-Mobile); 9, M Cavendish (Isle of Man, T-Mobile); 10, H Haussler (Ger, Gerolsteiner); 11, M Ladagnous (Fr, Française des Jeux); 12, T Hushovd (Nor, Crédit Agricole); 13, S Chavanel (Fr, Française des Jeux); 14, A Kloeden (Ger, Astana); 15, R Feillu (Fr, Agritubel); 16, G Hincapie (US, Discovery Channel); 17, J A Flecha (Sp, Rabobank); 18, O Pereiro (Sp, Caisse d’Epargne); 19, F Ventoso (Sp, Saunier Duval); 20, F Schleck (Lux, Team CSC); 21, A Kashechkin (Kaz, Astana); 22, S Schumacher (Ger, Gerolsteiner); 23, S Krauss (Ger, Gerolsteiner); 24, F Pozzato (It, Liquigas); 25, L Jegou (Fr, Française des Jeux); 26, M Burghardt (Ger, T-Mobile); 27, K Kirchen (Lux, T-Mobile); 28, M Elmiger (Switz, AG2R) all same time. Leading overall positions: 1, Cancellara 15hr 12min 8sec; 2, Kloeden at 33sec behind; 3, D Millar (GB, Saunier Duval) 41; 4, Hincapie 43; 5, B Wiggins (GB, Cofidis); 6, V Gusev (Russ, Discovery Channel) 45; 7, Boonen 46; 8, V Karpets (Russ, Caisse d’Epargne); 9, Hushovd 49; 10, M Astarloza (Sp, Euskaltel) same time. Sprinters positions: 1, Boonen 80pts; 2, McEwen 74; 3, Zabel 62; 4, Feillu 57; 5, Cancellara 54; 6, Chavanel 53; 7, Hunter 51; 8, Eisel 47. King of the Mountains: 1, S Auge (Fr, Cofidis) 8pts; 2, Millar 5; 3, F Bichot (Fr, Agritubel) 3; 4, A Grivko (Ukr, Milram) 2; 5, M Ladagnous (Fr, Française des Jeux) 2; 6, A Kuchynski (Bela, Liquigas) 2; 7, F Willems (Bel, Liquigas) 1; 8, D De la Fuente (Sp, Saunier Duval) 1.