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Credit Agricole's Simon Gerrans took victory on a dramatic stage 15 of the Tour de France in Prato Nevoso that saw Frank Schleck (CSC) take the yellow jersey.

While the Australian proved too strong for fellow breakaway riders Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel), Danny Pate (Garmin-Chipotle) and Jose Luis Arrieta (Ag2r) on the first-category mountain-top finish, drama unfolded further down the mountain as Schleck and Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner) both moved away from race favourite Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) to take first and second places on the general classification respectively.

Schleck now holds a 7 second lead over mountain specialist Kohl, with Evans a second further back. Despite a crash during a solo attack on the final climb, Rabobank's Denis Menchov also finished strongly to reduce his arrears on the yellow jersey to 38 seconds ahead of Monday's rest day.

After a flurry of early attacks, among which Britain's David Millar was prominent, a lead trio comprising of Pate, Martinez and Arrieta managed to put significant time between themselves and the peloton.

As the pack trundled along miserably under stormy skies and lashing rain, Gerrans chanced his arm and bridged the gap across to the three escapees ahead of the first climb of the day, the hors-categorie Col Agnel.

By the time they reached the summit, they had extended their lead to a healthy 14 minutes over a lackadaisical peloton, though the previous days efforts' combined with the length of the climb were nevertheless too much for Stijn Devolder and Mark Renshaw, who both stepped off their bikes.

The hesitancy with which the leaders approached the descent of the Agnel indicated the technical nature of the descent, while the weather spelled the end of Oscar Pereiro's race as the peloton arrived. The Spaniard collided with Barloworld's Robbie Hunter, before being sent hurtling over one crash barrier and tumbling 10 metres into the stretch of road below. He was rushed away in an ambulance with a suspected broken shoulder and thigh bone.

As Damiano Cunego, who had been widely tipped to go all out for the stage win in his native Italy, saw his chances of a stage victory diminish with every kilometre that passed, the Lampre team eventually moved to the front of the peloton to try and whittle down the gap, which had grown to a massive 17 minutes by the midpoint of the stage.

Just as the Lampre domestiques were beginning to take time out the breakaway, a large crash took out a large number of riders at the front of the bunch on both sides of a roundabout, including the aforementioned Cunego as well as Garmin-Chipotle's Christian Vandevelde and white jersey Vincenzo Nibali.

As the fall put an end to any faint hopes Lampre may have had of reeling in the breakaway, so CSC moved to the front and set a punishing tempo into heart of the final climb of the day that saw Evans isolated, shorn of his team-mates.

While Cunego (Lampre) and Kim Kirchen (Columbia) were dropped, Menchov launched a big attack, only to crash soon after on an uphill turn on the wet tarmac.

Evans weakness' was plain for all to see, however, and soon Kohl, Sastre and Menchov again burst clear of the Australian, while Alejandro Valverde bridged the gap shortly afterwards.

While Kohl went all out for the yellow jersey and crossed the line ahead of Sastre with Valverde and Menchov a few seconds further back, Frank Schleck managed to drop Evans within the final kilometre to turn his one-second deficit into a seven-second advantage on the general classification, and claim the maillot jaune for the first time in his career.

Michael FitzGerald / Eurosport