LINUS Gerdemann of Germany spoiled the French Bastille Day celebrations when he won stage seven of the Tour de France, from Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand-Bornand.

The T-Mobile rider pulled off a hat-trick on the Tour's first mountain stage, taking the stage win, grabbing the yellow jersey from Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara and knocking Vladimir Gusev off the top spot in the under-26 competition.

Gerdemann was part of a 15-man leading group who broke clear after the first minor climb of the day.

By the time the 24-year-old had reached the first serious ascent of this year's race, the first category Col de la Colombiere, Gerdemann had ditched everyone bar Dimitriy Fofonov.

He left Fofonov behind five kilometres from the summit and lived on the edge, literally, on the descent to Le Grand-Bornand. Gerdemann took a series of risks, using every inch of the road as negotiated a series of hazardous bends and almost collided with a motorbike.

The Spaniard Inigo Landaluze attempted to hunt Gerdemann down, but was 44 seconds adrift at the finish, with David de la Fuente following in third.

The previous leader, Fabian Cancellara struggled, as expected, over the Alps, but all the main race favourites, including Andreas Kloden and Alexandre Vinokourov, both of whom suffered injuries on Thursday, finished together.