Matteo Trentin continued the amazing run of Omega Pharma-Quick Step success at this year's Tour de France when the second-year professional took his first ever win on the biggest scene of them all in today's 14th stage of the Tour de France. Having joined the decisive 18-rider move during the hectic opening part of the race, he played the finale tactically smart and saved his energy for one final kick that just allowed him to edge out Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) on the line.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step got their Tour de France off to a tough start, losing out due to a crash in stage one and narrowly being defeated in the team time trial. Mark Cavendish got the team off the ground in Marseille one day later but the Belgian squad has really taken off in the second week of the race.

Tony Martin won the time trial and Mark Cavendish took his second win after an impressive display of teamwork yesterday. Today the team proved that it is much more than just its stars when young Matteo Trentin emerged as the smartest in an 18-rider group that was set to decide the 14th stage of the race.

After a frantic first 80km, the race had settled when the 18 riders were finally allowed to go clear and the game of cat-and-mouse really started when the riders hit the penultimate climb of the day, the Cote de la Duchere, with 16km to go. Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol), Tejay Van Garderen, Marcus Burghardt (both BMC), Jan Bakelants, Jens Voigt (both Radioshack), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Arthur Vichot (FDJ), Blel Kadri (Ag2r), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Imanol Erviti, Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Egoitz Garcia (Cofidis), Trentin, Andrew Talansky, David Millar (both Garmin), Michael Albasini, Simon Geschke (Argos-Shimano) and Julien Simon (Sojasun) all started to climb together, and it was veteran Voigt who really put down the hammer.

His teammate Bakelants launched an attack and that spelled the end for the German who fell off the pace. The Belgian was joined by Geschke, Brutt, Albasini and Burghardt but that quintet got nowhere as Millar brought it all back together.

Van Garderen now really put down the hammer and that was too much for Millar who was the next to fall off. All were on their limits when Van Garderen finally eased off on the top of the climb and that was when Simon saw his chance.

The Frenchman accelerated and no one reacted to his move, thus allowing the Sojasun rider to build up a gap. The other escapees started to look at each other and very quickly, Simon was 40 seconds ahead.

Van Garderen tried to go in lone pursuit and Talansky also made a small attack but none of those got anywhere. Instead, it was Kadri who moved clear with 11,9km to go and he was chased hard behind Kadri.

On the day's final climb, more attacks took place, Albasini and Gautier being some of the aggressors, but once again Van Garderen just put down the hammer and reeled in Kadri on the top of the climb with 9,5km to go.

Simon was now 15 seconds ahead and his gap now went up and down between 10 and 15 seconds as it was stop-and-go racing in the chase group. Van Garderen, Garcia, Gautier, Geschke, Albasini and Bak all tried their hands but everything was immediately closed down.

With 5km to go, Van Garderen and Kadri opened op a small advantage but 700m further down the road, they were brought back. Simon was still 15 seconds ahead when Burghardt and Bak made another unsuccessful attack which spelled the end of Van Garderen's chances, the American dropping off the pace.

Bak, Bakelants and Gautier were the next to try in the extremely aggressive finale but it was Burghardt who finally had success. The German set off in pursuit and gradually reeled in Simon.

Albasini bridged to the German who had now run out of power and when they passed the flamme rouge, Albasini was the only one to reel in Simon. However, Burghardt was assisted by Geschke who bridged to his compatriot and drew the BMC riders up to the front duo, thus forming a quartet.

Geschke took a huge turn on the front which was too much for Burghardt but instead Bakelants bridged the gap. The Belgian immediately upped the pace even further and tried to surprise the leaders but Albasini, Simon and Geschke were quick to respond.

Rojas - on paper the fastest rider in the group - now did a huge amount of work to bring it back together and - sensing the imminent capture - Albasini opened a long sprint. For a long time, it appeared as though the veteran Swiss would finally take his first Tour stage win but Rojas had actually brought the group up to the leaders.

Trentin was a few positions behind Rojas and he opened his sprint in the right side of the road. He pipped the Swiss on the line to take his first ever win as a professional while Albasini had to settle for second.

Ian Stannard led the peloton across the line 7.18 minutes later, thus allowing Chris Froome (Sky) to defend his lead. Talansky was the big winner on GC as his time gain allowed him to move from 18th to 12th.

Tomorrow should, however, produce much more dramatic changes to the GC as the riders will head out on a mammoth 242,5km stage to the top of the Mont Ventoux. Starting at 14.00, you can follow that highly anticipated stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

A frantic start

The 191km stage to Lyon was a hilly one and most riders had marked this one out as their best opportunity to chase personal success from a breakaway. Hence, the start was extremely fast and the riders covered more than 48km during the first hour.

That pace was a consequence of a very strong trio consisting of Bak, Voigt and Kadri who got clear early in the race. For a long time they stayed around 30 seconds ahead of the peloton which was in fierce pursuit.

More riders join the front

Christophe Le Mevel (Cofidis) and Vichot bridged the gap and the quintet managed to build up a gap of 50 seconds before they once again started to lose time. Jean-Marc Marino (Sojasun) and David Veilleux (Europcar) were in pursuit for some time but never made the junction.

Le Mevel fell back into the peloton and just as the front quartet was about to get caught, 14 riders bridged the gap, thus forming the 18-rider group that ended up contesting the win. They built up a gap of 1.15 but Lampre and Euskaltel had both missed the move and thus the two teams started to chase.

Lampre and Euskaltel crack

Manuel Mori, Davide Cimolai, Gorka Izagirre, Mikel Astarloza and Mikel Nieve all did a huge work to reel in the front group and the gap was brought down to just 40 seconds. That was when the two teams cracked and the gap once again started to grow.

Vacansoleil had also missed the move and so Johnny Hoogerland put down the hammer on a small climb to once again bring the gap down to 40 seconds. Moments later, he stopped his effort and with 101km to go, the peloton finally gave up, suddenly slowing down.

Sky in control

The gap now grew quickly and got up to more than 2 minutes while Sky started to control the peloton. For the rest of the day, Stannard, David Lopez, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Geraint Thomas swapped turns on the front, the British team clearly content with the composition of the front group.

The breakaway also slowed down and started to save some energy for the final as they entered the hilly zone at the midpoint of the race. Nonetheless, the gap continued to come up throughout the rest of the day, reaching more than 7 minutes at the finish. Kadri, Geschke, Bakelants, Van Garderen, Talansky and Voigt all took some KOM points while Rojas was the only interested in the points at the intermediate sprint.

Cunego and Hoogerland refuse to give up

Lampre and Vacansoleil had not given up and so Damiano Cunego and Hoogerland attacked on a climb with 78km still to go. Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel) tried to bridge to the two chasers for a long time but was eventually unsuccessful, falling back into the peloton with 52km to go.

With 65km to go, Hoogerland left behind Cunego and got to within one minute of the leaders at the top. However, he once again started to lose ground on the descent and so he once again decided to wait for the Italian. The duo did their best to make the junction but as they constantly lost time, they fell back into the peloton with 16km to go.

Burghardt the first to attack

Burghardt was the first to attack from the front group as he accelerated with 61km to go but 3km further down the road it was back together. With 24km to go, Albasini and Millar both made small attacks but as they hit the penultimate climb, it was still all together.

That was when Voigt hit the front to launch his teammate Bakelants up the road, thus initiating the exciting finale from which Trentin emerged as the smartest to take his first ever professional win.

Result:

1. Matteo Trentin 4.13.11

2. Michael Albasini

3. Andrew Talansky

4. Jose Joaquin Rojas

5. Egoitz Garcia

6. Lars Bak

7. Simon Geschke

8. Arthur Vichot

9. Pavel Brutt

10. Cyril Gautier

General classification:

1. Chris Froome 55.22.58

2. Bauke Mollema +2.28

3. Alberto Contador +2.45

4. Roman Kreuziger +2.48

5. Laurens Ten Dam +3.01

6. Jakob Fuglsang +4.39

7. Michal Kwiatkowski +4.44

8. Nairo Quintana +5.18

9. Jean-Christophe Peraud +5.39

10. Joaquin Rodriguez +5.48

Points classification:

1. Peter Sagan 357

2. Mark Cavendish 273

3. Andre Greipel 217

4. Marcel Kittel 177

5. Alexander Kristoff 157

Mountains classification:

1. Pierre Rolland 50

2. Chris Froome 33

3. Richie Porte 28

4. Nairo Quintana 26

5. Mikel Nieve 21

Youth classification:

1. Michal Kwiatkowski 55.27.42

2. Nairo Quintana +0.34

3. Andrew Talansky +1.10

4. Romain Bardet +15.51

5. Tejay Van Garderen +27.42

Teams classification:

1. Team Saxo-Tinkoff  165.29.45

2. Movistar +2.26

3. Belkin +2.32

4. Ag2r +3.30

5. Radioshack +4.44