All of a sudden, the French are in with a chance of having a home rider finish on the podium of the Tour de France.
Guillaume Martin started the day in ninth, 3-57 off the top-three and being talked about as a good bet to secure a top-10.
But then on stage 14 the Cofidis rider attacked and made it into the day's breakaway, eventually finishing more than five minutes ahead of the peloton that contained the rest of the general classification riders.
He now goes into the rest of the stages in the Pyrenees second in the race, 4-04 behind Tadej Pogačar, the leader.
Martin was third for a good portion of last year's race and in the hunt for the overall title before slipping away, but he's never been second before.
Can he hold onto it? "I used a lot [of energy] today to be honest and I finished pretty empty," he said.
"I suffered a lot and with the heat I had a lot of salts on my jersey. I am trying to recover but I think I will lose time tomorrow.
"I hope not too much but on the rest day I will see what I can target."
Nevertheless, he is proud of his day's work. "I knew from the beginning it would be hard to target the stage win because it was a flat finish and it's always really tactical.
"And, to be honest, I didn't have super-good legs. I had no illusions about that. I just wanted to arrive at the finish line as quick as possible.
"When I attacked, I knew where to attack and what was coming after. I knew it was up and down and a good route for the breakaway. I think it [doing a recce of the stage] was an advantage."
Martin is 1-14 ahead of Rigoberto Uran in third, and has a buffer of 1-28 to Jonas Vingegaard, the rider in fourth.
Stage 15 is a punishing route finishing in Andorra, and the mountains resume after Monday's rest day.
