German rider Andre Greipel captured his second sprint victory in the Giro d'Italia while Tom Dumoulin held onto the pink jersey after the seventh stage on Friday.
Lotto-Soudal's Greipel was behind the other sprinters going around high-speed curves, but then surged in front on the final straight.
"It was tough all day with a strong breakaway that was hard to catch," said Greipel, who was nicknamed The Gorilla.
"My team did an amazing job. The chase had to be a serious one. Before the sprint, we hit the front early. ... The finish was nervous."
Greipel clocked slightly more than five hours over the rolling 211-kilometre route from Sulmona to Foligno.
The Lotto Soudal team has three consecutive victories after Greipel took the fifth stage, and teammate Tim Wellens took Stage 6.
"If we were playing football we would say we've scored a hat-trick," Greipel said.
Italian riders Giacomo Nizzolo and Sacha Modolo finished second and third, respectively, while Orica rider Caleb Ewan was Australia's highest finisher for the stage, in fourth.
Overall contender Esteban Chaves finished nine seconds behind the main pack and dropped to 11th overall.
Javier Moreno, a Spaniard with the Movistar team, crashed midway through the stage and was concerned about his collarbone as he was loaded into an ambulance.
Stage eight on Saturday is a 186km leg from Foligno to the Tuscan town of Arezzo, featuring a minor climb shortly before the finish.
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