Slovakian Peter Sagan dominated a bunch sprint to win the seventh stage of the Tour de France as South African Daryl Impey defended the race leader's yellow jersey.
Sagan, last year's winner of the race's green jersey points competition, surged in the final 150 metres of the 205.5 kilometre stage from Montpellier to Albi to claim his first win of the 100th edition.
Germany's John Degenkolb (Argos) and Italian Daniele Bennati (Saxo) finished a bike length behind in second and third respectively.
Sprint favourites Britain's Mark Cavendish and German Andre Greipel had been dropped on a climb earlier in the stage.
Impey finished 12th in the bunch to keep the overall lead for Australia's GreenEDGE team.
Impey took the lead from teammate Simon Gerrans on Thursday but will likely relinquish it after Saturday's first difficult climbs in the high Pyrenees.
That will have given GreenEDGE four days with the yellow jersey in only their second Tour.
