Cedric Vasseur, of the Quick Step team, won the tenth stage of the Tour de France from Tallard to Marseille after a photo-finish put the Frenchman ahead of compatriot Sandy Casar, of the Francaise des Jeux team.

Vasseur completed the 229.5km route in a time of 5hr 20min 20sec, the same time attributed to Casar.

The 26-year-old, who's father Alain competed in the 1970, 1971 and 1974 Tours, won a stage in the 2003 Dauphiné Libéré, but had never before triumphed in the Tour.

Denmark's Michael Rasmussen, of the Rabobank team, retained the overall race lead.

The 36-year-old Vasseur, riding his 10th and final Tour with the Quick Step team, won a tight sprint finish after 5hr 20min 24sec of racing under the sweltering heat from Tallard ahead of Casar.

Swiss rider Michael Albasini of Liquigas finished a bike length back in third.

It was the second stage win for Vasseur and comes ten years after his victory in 1997 at La Chatre when he wore the yellow jersey for five days.

"It's a great gift," said Vasseur, whose victory means Quick Step now have three stage wins on this year's race. "It was the 10th stage on my 10th Tour and this morning a close friend told me that this was going to be my day.

"I knew a breakaway would form, and I was just lucky that I got into the right one. Once we'd got a good gap on the peloton I started to think maybe it it would be my day."

Rasmussen will begin his third day in the yellow jersey on Thursday's 11th stage with his advantage on most of his rivals intact after the main peloton finally allowed an 11-man breakaway group to finish the race unhindered.

It was the first time a breakaway has succeeded on a non-mountain stage of this year's race, although that was perhaps symptomatic of the peloton's fatigue after three tough days in the Alps.

Germany's Marcus Burghardt was the instigator after the race's first small climb at 57km, although the big T-Mobile rider, who crashed on Tuesday when a dog ran into his path, again missed out on contending the stage win.