2012 Tour de France — Britain’s Wiggins in Yellow Jersey After First Climb

Wiggins received the leader’s yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara after the 123-mile trek from Tomblaine. Cancellara, a Swiss time-trial specialist, had led since winning the prologue a week ago.

Wiggins, who began the day seven seconds behind Cancellara in second place, leads the defending champion, Cadel Evans of Australia, by 10 seconds. Vincenzo Nibali of Italy is also 10 seconds off the pace in third.

“It’s a great day for the team; we won the stage and took the yellow jersey,” Wiggins said. “This is my first time in the yellow jersey. It’s incredible; it’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid.”

Froome led a Team Sky phalanx that powered up the final climb. With most rivals falling away, Froome, a Kenyan-born cyclist, burst ahead to finish two seconds ahead of the BMC leader Evans and the Sky leader Wiggins, who is bidding to become the first Briton to win the Tour.

Cancellara trailed nearly two minutes back.

The stage marked the first of three summit finishes in the race this year. Lighter, nimbler mountain specialists seized the limelight after a first week dominated by sprinters across the flatter regions of Belgium — where the race began June 30 — and northern France.

The final ascent, at three miles, was relatively short as far as the Tour’s biggest climbs go. But it was steep, with a grueling 14-percent gradient in the last 500 yards.

Seven riders broke away from the pack after nine miles and held the lead until the start of the final climb. Wiggins’s team then pressed the peloton’s pace before overtaking.

The Giro d’Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal of Canada pulled out before the start of the stage after being injured in a multirider crash Friday.

Hesjedal injured his left leg and hip during the crash-marred sixth stage and was scheduled to fly home Saturday. His Garmin-Sharp team said that Hesjedal was unable to pedal because of the leg injuries.

Hesjedal was among at least two dozen riders caught in a nasty crash with 16 miles to go Friday.

He lost more than 13 minutes and dropped to 108th over all.

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