Bradley Wiggins moved into the race lead at the Criterium du Dauphine as Cadel Evans signalled his intent with victory on stage one.
The Team Sky Brit pulled on the yellow jersey after finishing in a reduced peloton following a frenetic finale to the first road stage of the eight-day event.
Evans (BMC Racing) lit the blue touch paper after making his way into a dangerous three-man move on the descent into the finish in Saint-Valliers, holding on to the finish to win a lengthy sprint to the line.
Jerome Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) and Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) joined Evans in firing off the front on the technical descent following the third category Cote de la Sizeranne.
Team Sky took up the chase to shut down the gap before a bunch sprint ensued behind, the result seeing Evans take four seconds out of the peloton but not enough to deny Wiggins another yellow jersey, the British national champion inheriting a slender one-second lead.
The pace had proved too hot for overnight leader Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE) who lost time along with a number of big names on a tougher-than-expected test.
After the stage Wiggins summed up an intriguing day in the saddle.
He said: “It’s hard to look too much into the results today. I knew Cadel would be good as the Tour de France is coming up and he’s always good at the Tour. There’s no surprise there.
“There’s still a long way to the Tour. That’s the race most guys are preparing for. I’m just trying to concentrate on my own race and I stayed safe today in the front and felt good.
“It’s hard not to compete in this race. I’d rather come to the bike race and go flat out. If I wasn’t doing that I’d have to go training.”
Edvald Boasson Hagen was the first Team Sky rider across the line in 10th, promoting the Norwegian into the white young rider’s jersey which he wore on the day on behalf of Durbridge.
The stage proved a difficult one for a number of contenders with Dan Martin (Garmin-Barracuda) crashing hard on a roundabout while Andy Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) surprisingly slipped back on the final climb of the day, losing over three minutes alongside Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana).
Another man in trouble in the early stages was Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), the Spaniard falling victim to a crash and unable to bridge back to the peloton, despite the efforts of two team-mates, with suspected broken ribs.
Earlier, setting off into a headwind as the peloton rolled out of Seyssins, four riders went clear and were joined by two further attackers to claim an advantage of over 13 minutes.
BMC Racing and Team Sky combined with Orica-GreenEDGE to peg the move back to a manageable distance, with a number of teams willing to help out with the chase as the day wore on.
The final of six categorised climbs, the Cote de la Sizeranne saw the race detonate as Omega Pharma-Quickstep put the hammer down, stringing out the bunch and shelling out a number of riders.
Pierre Rolland (Europcar) was the first rider to jump out of peloton over the top and onto the descent, Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) and Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing) also trying to break clear before Markel Irizar (RadioShack-Nissan) became the final man to be caught from the remnants of the break.
It was then left to Evans to seize his opportunity and sound a warning to his rivals heading closer to the Tour de France.
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