The quartet had initially featured in an eight-man attack before they pulled clear of their fellow escapees in the closing stages.

No-one started the day with the coveted yellow jersey as the overnight race leader Michael Rasmussen had been sacked by his Rabobank team and thus removed from the race for his failure to inform them of his whereabouts in the build-up to the Tour.

Rasmussen had earlier vented his spleen to Danish newspaper B.T. and denied reports that he had been in Italy rather than Mexico as had been claimed.

Rasmussen told the paper: "I was not in Italy - not at all.

"It's the story of a man who thinks he recognised me and there's not a shred of proof.

"This is all madness. I don't understand it. It's crazy."

Rasmussen's failure to fully disclose his plans had frustrated dope testers.

The Dane's dismissal from Le Tour had heaped further scandal on a race already reeling from the expulsions of pre-race favourite Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan and Cristian Moreni of Italy, who had failed dope tests, with their respective teams, Astana and Cofidis, also leaving the race.

At the end of today's stage it was Spain's Alberto Contador who was presented with the yellow jersey as he maintained his one minute and 53 seconds lead over Australia's Cadel Evans with just three days remaining.

A delighted Bennati was thrilled by his stage victory, but he acknowledged the day has been overshadowed by the doping scandals that have rocked the sport.

The Italian told Eurosport: "I'm very happy with this victory, it's one of the best rides I've ever had. It was pretty hard because we broke away so early.

"I really hope that this Tour will solve all these problems as the people who follow it don't deserve it. I've always loved this sport and I hope it gets better.

"We need to go on and we need to do this for all the people who believe in this sport and for the sport itself."

With a black cloud hanging over the Tour and question marks as to its credibility, the 142 riders still involved in the proceedings set off from Pau in reflective mood.

It did not take long for a group of eight riders to attack the peloton and build up a two minute lead over the 188.5km of flat roads following the Pyrenees mountain terrain of the last three days.

The leaders managed to comfortably sustain their advantage throughout the middle section of the race, which also saw Rasmussen's former Rabobank team-mate Denis Menchov of Russia abandon the Tour in frustrating fashion.

The peloton were in no mood to chase down the breakaway group as they built their lead to a staggering eight minutes with just 20km until the finishing line.

But four kilometres later, the leading eight riders had been whittled down to a pack of four as Millar and another struggling trio failed to keep up with an attack from German CSC rider Voigt.

The leading quartet continued to up the tempo in the closing stages but no-one could keep hold of Benita's wheel as he kicked in with just 300 metres remaining to claim glory.