The 27-year-old from RadioShack - riding his debut Tour de France - was part of a six-man break that formed on the final run into the finish of the lumpy 154km stage from Bastia.

With the peloton rapidly closing in, Bakelants jumped clear of his fellow escapees with 1km to go banner and somehow dug deep and found the strength to hold off the chasing pack, which was led over the line by Slovakian Peter Sagan of Cannondale, just one second adrift.

“I’m incredibly happy,” Bakelants told Eurosport immediately after the stage. “I’ve never won a professional race before in my career and I’ve had incredible bad luck in the past. This year I had an operation on my knee as well which ruled me out of the classics. Today we were in a bunch and I can’t win in a bunch so I broke away. We were six riders and we had Sylvain Chavanel, who is good in these situations. I pushed it and went on my own. I told myself to give it all I had and have no regrets. I don’t know how tight it was – pretty tight I think.”

After uttering one of the day’s biggest understatements, the ecstatic RadioShack rider added: “I’ve been riding five years for this. The best

thing is that it’s only the second day of the Tour and now there is no pressure on me or the team.”