PRATO NEVOSO, Italy (AFP) - Luxembourg's Frank Schleck took possession of the Tour de France yellow jersey from Cadel Evans here on Friday after a thrilling 15th stage in the Alps which blew the race wide open.

Australian Simon Gerrans, of the Credit Agricole team, claimed his maiden win on the race - and the biggest of his career - at the end of the 183km stage, the first of three in the Alps.

Gerrans had been part of a four-man breakaway that went on to build a maximum lead of just over 17 minutes on the bunch.

On one of the final bends to the race's third summit finish the Credit Agricole rider made a decisive move, changing down a gear and pulling ahead of Euskaltel's Egoi Martinez to finish 03sec ahead of the Spaniard.

American Danny Pate, of Garmin, finished third at 10 with Spaniard Jose Luis Arrieta of AG2R in fourth at 55.

"It's a big surprise because normally they would be stronger than me on the climbs," said Gerrans, who during the final climb momentarily lost touch when an attack by Martinez dropped Arrieta out of contention.

"Winning a stage on the Tour, the biggest race in the world, is just something else. I think it still hasn't sunk in yet. I'm sure I'll be pinching myself for the next few days," added Gerrans.

With respect to the frontrunners, the big battle was going on in their wake. And it has resulted in what is the most open Tour in years.

Five riders finished the day within one minute of Schleck, meaning there should be guaranteed drama when the race recommences on Tuesday following Monday's rest day.

Schleck, the Luxembourg champion, had been almost guaranteed taking the yellow jersey having started just one second behind Evans, and bolstered by a strong CSC team that the Aussie was always going to struggle to beat.

While Schleck was given help from younger brother Andy, and co-team leader Carlos Sastre, Evans was left on his own when Yaroslav Popovych ran out of juice early on the final, 11.1km climb.

Evans did well to limit his losses, but came over the finish line nine seconds behind Schleck, leaving the Luxemburger with a seven-second lead on Austrian Bernhard Kohl.

Evans is third at 08, 30secs ahead of Russian rival Denis Menchov, who has a one-second advantage on American Christian Vande Velde. Sastre, Schleck's teammate remains in sixth but has reduced his deficit to just 49.

Schleck admitted it was the hard pace-setting work of younger brother Andy, followed by some tactical accelerations from Sastre, that helped put Evans into the red.

"It was a very hard last climb, really fast and it was thanks mostly to my brother Andy. His pace put everyone into the red," said Schleck.

"Carlos attacked at the start, then Andy set the tempo and then Carlos attacked again.

"The end result is that Carlos has got back into the yellow jersey race and now I've got the yellow jersey. That was the goal this morning, and it shows we can do well on all sorts of terrain, on the flat, in the rain and on the climbs.

"I think it's superb what we did today."

Menchov, who has been consistently described as a major favourite, provided one of the major incidents of the day when he came skidding down on a bend on the final climb after launching an attack around 4km from the finish.

Menchov got back on his bike to rejoin Sastre, and rebounded in spectacular fashion by finishing 18sec ahead of Franck Schleck.

Menchov, however, was not the only rider to crash.

Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, the 2006 champion, ended up in hospital after a dramatic fall which left him with shoulder injuries.

Britain's David Millar and Vande Velde also came crashing down as the peloton rode around both sides of a roundabout prior to approaching the final climb.

Vande Velde, however, recovered to stay well in contention with the favourites.