Raul Alcala of Mexico began his professional cycling career at the 1986 Tour de France.
On Monday, Alcala's three years of competition paid off as he became the first Mexican ever to win a stage of the world's most famous cycling race, capturing the 150-mile third leg of this year's Tour de France.The 25-year-old Alcala, competing in his fourth Tour de France, was timed in 6 hours, 34 minutes, 7 minutes for the leg. The race started in Luxembourg, the site of the prologue and first two stages over the weekend, and ended in Belgium on the course of the Formula One track in Spa-Francorchamps.
Portugal's Acacio da Silva retained the yellow jersey as the overall leader with a 24-second advantage over Denmark's Soren Lilholt.
Alcala led a group of five cyclists that broke away from the main pack with about 25 miles to go on the relatively flat section that included just two moderate climbs.
Jesper Skibby of Denmark and Patrick Tolhoek of Belgium were second and third, both about five seconds behind Alcala.
Da Silva, meanwhile, finished 11th but retained the yellow jersey as most of the racers did not want to make any efforts after four races in three days. Da Silva was in the forefront of of pack that finished about 50 seconds behind the winner.
Defending champion Pedro Delgado of Spain, after a disastrous weekend that included him arriving late for the prologue, still was near the end of the pack.
Today's 158-mile stage starts near Liege and reenters France to end at Wasquehal.