It was a chaotic final sprint into Amiens, with a number of riders coming into contact as they bumped and barged their way to secure positional advantage coming into the final dash for the finishing line.
With 900 metres to go in the stage Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) leaned his head and shoulder into Nikias Arndt (Team Sunweb) to secure his spot behind the Groupama-FDJ sprint train. He successfully fought off the attempt of Arndt and held a good position into the finish.
The Groupama- FDJ train was passed by the now familiar late surge of Max Richeze (Quick-Step Floors), although the Argentinian leadout man didn't have Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) on his wheel, with the quick Colombian opting to follow John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) instead.
It was Peter Sagan (BORA-hasngrohe) who followed the pace-making of Richeze and used the momentum to hit out first towards the finish line.
Gaviria and Greipel followed the sprint of Sagan but came into contact as Gaviria found himself without room to sprint further forward as he was hard up against the barriers while Greipel blocked his way into open space. Gaviria put two digs into Greipel to try and move the big German off his spot, the second with his head.
The way eventually opened up for Gaviria as Greipel moved out to pass Sagan, and the Quick-Step Floors rider was able to move up the barriers to finish third on the road as Greipel finished off strongly for second. Neither would hold their position, with both of them relegated to last position in the front group by the race jury after the stage.
The loss of points in the sprint finish further consolidates the position of Peter Sagan in the Green Jersey standings, with the Slovakian extending his lead out to 63 points over Gaviria.
The other major news came after the finish, as Marcel Kittel explosively venting his frustration on his Katusha-Alpecin bus after the stage concluded. The big German finished 17th after another stage where he was disconnected from his leadout train.
Stage-winner Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) has put behind the difficulties of the early stages with a pair of resounding performances. He was slightly behind the fracas between Greipel and Gaviria, pulling out to the far side of the road and powering past everyone else to make it two consecutive wins for the Dutchman.
