Australian Richie Porte improved two places to sixth overall after the seventh stage of the Tour de France won by Italian Matteo Trentin.
OPQS rider Trentin beat Peter Sagan by millimetres in a thrilling sprint finish at the end of the 234.5km ride from Epernay to Nancy.
It was the third time at this Tour that Sagan had finished second on a stage while he's ended all seven stages so far in the top five.
Italian Vincenzo Nibali retained his overall lead and the margin back to Porte remains at 1min 54sec.
Nibali has a two-second lead over Astana teammate Jakob Fuglsang and is 2:37 clear of his main rival, Alberto Contador.
Frenchman Tony Gallopin finished third on the stage and Australian champion Simon Gerrans was fifth.
"There's been lots of crashes so far and again today in the sprint finish," said Nibali.
"The end of the stage was very tough, I knew Sagan wanted to win but Trentin won a great sprint.
"It was only at end that it was very fast because it was downhill and I wanted to stay at the front."
While most of the big names finished safely in the front peloton there was no such luck for American Tejay Van Garderen.
The BMC leader started the day 11th at 2min 11sec but lost another 58sec after crashing around 16km out on a speedy and hectic finale.
His compatriot Andrew Talansky also came down in the sprint finish but, as he was inside the final 3km, he was awarded the same time as the leading group.
Talansky was furious with Gerrans, whom he blamed for his crash but his Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters took a diplomatic line.
"I don't know if it's Gerrans's fault or not but he (Talansky) is annoyed," Vaughters said.
"There was a risk of breaking his hand on the handlebar (as he crashed). He hasn't lost time and I think tomorrow he'll be OK."
After more than 200km of leisurely pursuit of a six-man breakaway, which had been whittled down to just Martin Elmiger and Bartosz Hurazski by the time they were caught, the race kicked into gear in the final 20km.
The peloton was shredded by a short but tough 3.2km climb at an average 5 per cent gradient, after which Van Garderen went down.
The pace went up again before the final 1.3km climb at a 7.9 per cent gradient which further slimmed the leaders.
Sagan attacked over the top with Belgian Greg Van Avermaet but they were caught with around 1km left.
Sagan still had the legs to challenge in the sprint finish but Trentin held him off.
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