Russian Denis Menchov became the first victim of the Tour de France's yellow jersey contenders yesterday when he got caught napping in a hectic finish to the 208km stage.

Menchov, a two-time Tour of Spain winner, found himself in a group that had been left trailing after some furious accelerations at the front of the peloton.

In the end, Cofidis sprinter Samuel Dumoulin went on to win his first stage of the race with a superbly-timed drive for the line while compatriot Romain Feillu made it a French double by pulling on the yellow jersey.

All the big favourites for the final victory in Paris crossed the line just over two minutes behind, Menchov being the only one of the big guns to lose time after he trailed in over 30 seconds later.

It could have been worse, Rabobank having worked furiously to close the gap to the first chasing bunch in the closing kilometres.

But Rabobank was still furious, especially as it had spoken about that particular part of the course which, with detrimental crosswinds, made the chase even tougher.

Rabobank team manager Erik Breukink said he was not ''very satisfied'' with the result of the stage.

''This is the Tour de France, so the time we lost ... was valuable, especially when it could have been prevented,'' Breukink said.

Menchov has returned to the Tour as Rabobank's main yellow jersey hope, a year after the controversy prompted by Danish climber Michael Rasmussen missing a series of doping tests and then eventually being sacked and thrown off the race for lying over his whereabouts.

Menchov's setback will question whether he can win this year's race, with Australian Cadel Evans and Spaniard Alejandro Valverde the main favourites.

''I was too far behind when the peloton decided to break away. Losing 38 seconds is not my idea of what I had planned for today,'' Menchov said.

''But I'm not that far behind in the general classification and I'm not giving up hope just yet.''

Menchov was aiming to make up for lost time in the time trial held overnight over 29.5km. AFP