Spaniard Isaac Galvez (Illes Balears) drew first blood on Saturday as the three-stage Critérium International opened in Charleville-Mezieres.

In claiming his first victory on French soil, the former track racer handed another disappointment to one-time sprint king Erik Zabel (T-Mobile), who crossed in second place. Robert Forster (Gerolsteiner) took third.

Illes Balears was looking to add another Mallorcan to the roster when it recruited 29-year-old Galvez, a 1999 world track champion in the Madison. And after pulling out of the UCI world track championships being held in Los Angeles because of a dispute with his federation, Galvez showed he was not just here to make up the numbers.

"I knew I had a chance to win here. I've already finished second behind (Oscar) Freire in Mallorca and behind (Alessandro) Petacchi at the Tour of Valencia," said Galvez.

Galvez's victory gave him the overall lead by four seconds over the 34-year-old Zabel, a six-time winner of the Tour de France's green jersey, who is still looking for his first victory since May 22 of last year, when he won a stage on the Tour of Bavaria.

Saturday's 187km stage was brought to life almost from the start by Frenchman Frederic Finot (Française des Jeux), whose lone breakaway was joined at the 60km mark by compatriot Denis Robin (Gerolsteiner) and Spaniard Igor Anton Hernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

The trio had built a lead of nearly 12 minutes at one point, but despite their best efforts they were caught by a small group of riders, including Australian Brad McGee (Française des Jeux), Jorg Jaksche (Liberty Seguros), Jens Voigt (Team CSC) and Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), around 14km from the finish.

McGee then attacked, taking three riders with him - Didier Rous (Bouygues Telecom), Joost Potshuma (Rabobank) and David Munoz (Comunidad Valenciana) - but Jaksche's Liberty team was in no mood to allow them to proceed and they were soon reeled in.

McGee, who is a favorite for the final time-trial stage of the race on Sunday, said he decided to take his chance after his teammates ran out of steam.

"I was supposed to stay in the peloton and Philippe (Gilbert) and Thomas (Lovkvist) were going to attack," said the Aussie. "But on the final climb Philippe kind of ran out of steam and I felt okay, so I attacked.

"It was my first big effort of the season. Now I'm thinking about going for victory in the time trial tomorrow."

Both final stages take place on Sunday. FULL RESULTS ARE POSTED

Scroll down for a Graham Watson photo gallery.

Galvez takes the win ... photo by: Graham Watson	... and the leader's jersey photo by: Graham Watson
Finot has a go ... photo by: Graham Watson	... and collects some company photo by: Graham Watson
Levi enjoys a day in the saddle photo by: Graham Watson	And why not? It was beautiful in the Ardennes photo by: Graham Watson