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Briton Mark Cavendish won the third stage of the Tour de France as seven-times champion Lance Armstrong climbed up to third overall in the standings at La Grande Motte.

Cavendish, who also won the stage on Sunday, outsprinted Norway's Thor Hushovd after a 196.5km trek from Marseille with France's Cyril Lemoine coming home third.

Swiss Fabian Cancellara of the Saxo Bank team retained the overall leader's yellow jersey and now leads German Tony Martin and American Armstrong by 33 and 40 seconds respectively.

Favourite Alberto Contador, who was trapped behind after a sharp acceleration by Cavendish's Columbia-HTC team by the end of the stage, dropped to fourth overall, 59 seconds off the pace.

With the peloton gradually closing down a four-man breakaway composed of Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel), Maxime Bouet (Agritubel) and Koen de Kort (Skil-Shimano), a bunch sprint finish seemed in store.

But the peloton split into two parts some 40km from the finish after a sudden acceleration by Columbia-HTC that surprised almost all the favourites, including Contador.

Among the top contenders, only Armstrong, back in the saddle after 3 1/2 years in retirement, was in the front group of some 28 riders who caught the four early fugitives.

Columbia, with no fewer than eight men inside the lead group, instantly pulled as hard as they could, and were joined by five of Skil-Shimano's riders, along with the Milram duo of Linus Gerdemann and Fabian Wegmann.

Armstrong did not help Columbia widen the gap, staying in the middle of the small pack with team mates Haimar Zubeldia and Yaroslav Popovych -- at first.

But with 15km remaining after discussions with team boss Johan Bruyneel, Popovych and Zubeldia started to work.

Seeing Armstrong and Cancellara further up the road, Cadel Evans' Silence-Lotto team, Andy Schleck's Saxo Bank squad and Christian Vande Velde's Garmin team took turns to try to reel the leaders back in, but they lacked the organisation of Columbia's well-oiled machine.

As the finish neared so the gap grew and the Columbia train began to move into position.

Bert Grabsch and George Hincapie, both of whom had given their all on the front for a large part of the crucial final 30 kilometres moved aside, and Mark Renshaw hit the front as they entered the final straight.

With Hushovd and Cancellara in contention, victory was by no means a formality for Cavendish, though when he moved out of the slipstream of Renshaw with 200 metres to go and surged for the line, it was clear Hushovd did not have the power to match him.

The Norwegian rolled in second with Dumoulin claiming a well-deserved fourth place, having managed to stay with the relentless pace of the lead group, despite having ridden out front for over 160 kilometres in the breakaway.

Martin and Armstrong were the day's big winners as the gap between the two groups reached 41 seconds on the finish line.

The general classification will receive a more significant shake-up in Tuesday's fourth stage, a 39-kilometre team time-trial around Montpellier.

STAGE FOUR LIVE at 1pm on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe

Michael FitzGerald / Reuters