It came at the end of a 195 kilometres stage from La Baule in which the breakaway were caught by the looming peloton with barely a kilometre to go.

Quick-Step Floors' Gaviria, Bora-Hansgrohe's Sagan and Lotto-Soudal's Greipel were always likely to be contenders in the subsequent sprint along with Dimension Data's Briton Mark Cavendish.

Cavendish looked like he was well-positioned when his South African team put two men in lead-out positions as riders began to jostle in preparation for the sprint.

He did not have the legs, though, when Quick-Step attacked and Gaviria broke clear with Sagan in hot pursuit. 

Greipel then attacked well in the final 100 metres but could not quite overhaul the leading duo.

All three were awarded the same time of 4 hours 25min 01sec.

Belgium's Greg van Avermaet finished safely in the peloton to retain his overall lead and the yellow jersey.

The BMC Racing rider and reigning Olympic road race champion leads on the same time as American team-mate Tejay van Garderen.

Great Britain and Team Sky's Geraint Thomas remains third, three seconds back.

Russia and Katusha-Alpecin's Ilnur Zakarin was the only overall contender to experience problems today as he found himself caught behind a crash with 5.5km to go and lost 56 seconds.

A hilly 204.5km stage between Lorient and Quimper is scheduled for tomorrow.