Wearing the yellow jersey, Peter Sagan considered stopping at a cafe.
Hardly pedalling, the overall leaders in the Tour de France spent most of Monday's third stage chatting to one another and riding at such a leisurely pace that they could have fit right in on a town bike path.
"It was a very relaxed day for us. We went slow. It was nice," said Sagan, who playfully bumped shoulders with some of the other riders just to keep things interesting.
"I was thinking one moment we were going to take the coffee like old time."
The morning caffeine didn't kick in until the end of the lengthy and mostly flat 223.5km leg from Granville to Angers.
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That was when Mark Cavendish showed off his sprinting experience by edging German rival Andre Greipel in a photo finish.
Australian hopeful Richie Porte, who suffered a costly puncture on Sunday, remains off the pace and is 119 seconds behind Sagan.
"It was slow but then you know it's going to be more hectic in the final which it was in the last 60 kilometres," Porte told the BMC Racing Team website.
"It was super fast and quite dangerous but it's another day ticked off. It's still six hours on the bike.
"It's not hard enough to be a race but you're still not recovering. Fingers crossed that it's a little bit faster tomorrow but each day is a day closer to the goal."
Having also won Saturday's opening stage at Utah Beach, it was Cavendish's second victory in this Tour and 28th overall.
The British rider with Team Dimension Data matched five-time Tour champion Bernard Hinault for second on the all-time list behind Eddy Merckx, who had a record 34 stage wins at the Tour.
"To even be mentioned in the same sentence as Bernard Hinault is something that I couldn't even have dreamed of," Cavendish said. "But I'm never going to compare myself to him."
On the winner's podium, Cavendish was greeted by the 61-year-old Hinault, now at his final Tour in an ambassador role.
Defending champion Chris Froome moved up one spot to fourth, 14 seconds behind Sagan.
