Tony Martin in yellow after audacious stage four win on the cobbles

Thwarted by time bonuses for the past two days in his quest to hit the race summit, Martin, the powerhouse time trial specialist from Etixx-QuickStep, broke clear of a select pack with a trademark dig from distance to take a fifth career stage win on the Tour and with it a first maillot jaune.

After attacking with 2.5km remaining of the 223.5km stage from Seraing, Martin held on to finish three seconds clear of a chasing group of main favourites - including overnight leader Chris Froome of Team Sky.

With 10 bonus seconds awarded for the win, Martin moved 12 seconds clear of Froome after the British rider impressed over the challenging cobbles of northern France.

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and – despite a broken rear wheel – Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) all finished in the main pack alongside Froome, but there was another setback for Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) who conceded more than three minutes to his rivals after a series of mechanical issues on the penultimate cobbled section of yet another dramatic day in the race.

Germany’s John Degenkolb – a winner on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix earlier in the season – led the chase behind Martin in the final kilometre but left it too late. The Giant-Alpecin rider pipped Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) for second place with the top five completed by Belgian Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Norway’s Edvald Boasson-Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka).

Martin’s victory looked unlikely after the 30-year-old picked up an untimely puncture in the penultimate, longest cobblestone sector of Quievy, 18.5km from the finish.

In fact, Martin was forced to ride the rest of the stage on team-mate Matteo Trentin’s bike – making his last-gasp success all the more spectacular.

“When I changed bikes I thought I had no chance and I was ready to focus on the next stage and our hopes of a sprint win,” said Martin, his face caked in dirt from the unforgiving cobbles.

“Suddenly with five kilometres to go we were back together and I then decided to have a go. I went full gas and somehow had the power to stay out. I must have produced more watts than ever before – and I’m so happy for the team that we got the win and yellow jersey.”

Having placed Dutchman Lieuwe Westra – so impressive in last year’s corresponding stage – in the day’s break, the Astana team of defending Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali set out their store from the outset.

When Westra, Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar), Frederic Brun (Bretagne) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) were swept up ahead of the final six back-to-back sectors of cobbles, Astana upped the tempo in the main pack.

Nibali looked like he was riding on glass as he, Lars Boom and Jakob Fuglsang – the top three from last year’s stage five over the cobbles – edged clear of the pack on Sector 5 at Querenaing, only to be reeled in by specialists Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep).

On a tarmac section between Sectors 4 and 3 Chris Froome – in a rare moment of isolation – was almost nudged into the kerb by Katusha’s Jacobo Guarnieri in an incident remarkably similar to the crash that ended Froome's chances is last year’s Tour.

Moments later, with 27km remaining and at the start of Sector 3 at St Python, Nibali almost suffered the same fate when Frenchman Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) swings across the cobbles into his path, forcing the Italian to take evasive action on the dirty track to the left of the road.

It’s on such incidents on that the Tour can hinge – and these near misses could have undone both riders' otherwise stellar performances over the combined 13.3km stretches of cobbles.

Coming off the final cobbled section with 10km remaining a select group of eight riders – featuring Froome, Sky team-mate Geraint Thomas, BMC pair Tejay Van Garderen and Greg Van Avermart, Nibali, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep) and John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) – held a slender lead over the chasing pack.

But there was little unity meaning the pack could fight back on with 8km to go. Nibali and Degenkolb appeared to be chatting among themselves with 3.5km remaining as Martin took advantage of the momentarily lull and used his time trialling skills to open up a decent gap.

Team Sky were quite happy to let Martin ride clear, safe in the knowledge that he would take the yellow jersey – and with it the media glare and extra responsibility – off the shoulders of Froome, who later admitted it was “the perfect scenario for us”.

He targeted a maiden yellow jersey in Utrecht but finished the opening time trial 5 seconds down on winner Rohan Dennis of BMC. A day later, Fabian Cancellara’s bonus seconds for third place saw Martin miss out on yellow by 3 seconds. Froome’s bonus seconds for finishing behind Joaquim Rodriguez on the Mur de Huy put him 1 second ahead of Martin.

So it was a case of fourth time lucky for the German they call Panzerwagen – who finally ended the hoodoo and took the jersey he so coveted. What’s more, he did it on Matteo Trentin’s bike. A classy ride from one of the most popular riders in the peloton.

A puncture and then a problem with his derailleur led to FDJ’s Thibaut Pinot pulling a hissy fit in the decisive moments of stage four, the Frenchman eventually rolling home 3:20 behind his GC rivals to drop to 30th on the overall standings – six and a half minutes down on the summit. A disastrous scenario for the rider who finished on the podium last July.

The peloton passes through the battle fields of the Somme during the 189.5km stage five from Arras ahead of an expected bunch sprint in Amiens.

There have been fewer more popular stage winners than Tony Martin after the German’s persistence paid off with a perfect show of strength and audacity.