It was win number three in this year's race as Liquigas' Peter Sagan won the sixth stage of the 99th edition of the Tour De France this afternoon.
Today the race went eastwards from Epernay in the Champagne region to the city of Metz which has been a stage town on 39 previous occasions.
There was a crash before this 207.5km stage even officially started with Richie Porte (SKY) and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto Beilsol) going down.
With just over six kilometres gone, Garmin-Sharp's David Zabriskie attacked and was soon joined by Davide Malacarne (Europcar), Romain Zingle (Cofidis), and Karsten Kroon (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank).
Then, there was a big crash with around ten riders including the winner of the last two stages Andre Greipel of Lotto Beilsol going down.
All 194 riders continued on their way as the quartet out front extended their lead to 6.48.
With the sun staying out as the riders went past the tobacco fields and fields where over 250,000 Frenchmen lost their lives in the first World War, the gap started to drop.
It was five minutes as they went through the feed station at Villotte Devant Louippy and as the quartet rode down the D902, it was down to four minutes.
The day's intermediate sprint came at Saint Mihiel in the Meuse Department with 72kms to go. Karsten Kroon took the twenty points on offer. Matt Goss (eleven points) just beat Mark Cavendish (ten points) as the peloton came over the sprint line.
Less than eight kilometres later and the battle was on for the point in the King Of The Mountains competition with the only climb at Cote de Buxieres. David Zabriskie took that point whilst on the climb Andre Greipel was involved in another crash which held up much of the peloton..
With forty kilometres to go, the gap was down to a minute. Sixteen kilometres later, there was a massive crash. At least thirty riders went down with the likes of Voeckler, Schleck and Giro D'Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal included.
Tom Danielson (Garmin) Davide Vigano (Lampre), Oscar Freire, and Mikal Astarloza (Euskatel) was forced to abandon as the front group moved to within sixteen seconds of the four escapers. The second group, which also included Mark Cavendish and Lampre's Michele Scarponi, were two and a half minutes behind.
With 2.5km to go, only David Zabriskie who had won the Combativity award was up front.
The American was caught with 1.3kms to go . Matt Goss followed Peter Sagan who then beat Andre Greipel to win in 4.37.00 on the avenue Louie le Debonnaire. Goss was third with Van Hummel fourth.
Picture copyright of ASO
The group containg Schleck came in 2.08 down whilst Cavendish's group came in 6.03 back.
Fabian Cancellera still leads Bradley Wiggins by seven seconds. Peter Sagan, who has won three stages, keeps his Green Jersey.
More pictures http://t.co/hSqb6rJV