Chris Froome (Sky) took the overall lead at the Tour de France after a pulsating third stage in Belgium.

The Brit finished second on the crash-strewn stage behind Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) as he laid down a marker for his general classification rivals.

A number of big names were claimed by a high-speed spill which saw the race neutralised, including Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and Dimitriy Kozonchuk (Katusha), with all three suffering fractures or dislocations.

Race leader Fabian Cancellara saw his hopes of clinging onto the yellow jersey disappear after he was caught up in the melée, and Laurens Ten Dam (LottoNL-Jumbo) dislocated his shoulder but bravely carried on to finish the stage.

Despite the loss of his team-mate Kozonchuk, Rodriguez displayed the kind of form which saw him win La Flèche-Wallonne in 2012, with the stage finishing on the same home stretch as the famous Classic.

The Spaniard's team made their move as the race reached the final kilometre, surging to the front before their leader indulged in a game of cat-and-mouse with Froome on the slope of the Mur de Huy.

Rodriguez let his rival lead for the majority of the climb, before showing his hand in the final metres when he shot past to take the win.

"This is a special moment. I won Fleche-Wallonne here and so know the Mur well. I couldn’t get it wrong today because I knew I had the legs," Rodriguez said.

"It was a tough, tough stage. It was a normal day until the crash but it went okay for me. I don’t know why they stopped the race but we all started the Mur de Huy at a high pace. I wasn’t sure I could win but I accelerated and it felt like it was the longest time I ever spent going up the Mur de Huy."

Froome's disappointment at failing to see off Rodriguez was eased by the six-second time bonus he received for finishing second, which meant that he moved into the overall lead by a single second over Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep).

The 2013 race winner admitted he was surprised to have taken the yellow jersey so early in the race.

"I didn't wake up this morning thinking I'd be in yellow," he said.  "That was a real surprise. I knew there would be gaps up that climb, but I really didn't expect it to be significant enough to get into yellow. A huge thank you to my teammates today." 

"They turned themselves inside out to keep me always at the front of the race," he added. "Today was trecherous, lots of crashes again. Left, right, up, down all day - not too different from the Flèche-Wallonne classic this year. I just couldn't be happier to be in yellow going into the cobble stage tomorrow."

On Tuesday, the Tour returns to the controversial cobblestones which played such a huge part in last year's race, taking the peloton a distance of 223.5 kilometres from Seraing to Cambrai.