Matteo Trentin of Omega Pharma Quick Step has won the seventh stage of the Tour De France.
The second longest stage of the 101st Tour was a stage which started in Épernay for a 234.5km stage to Nancy with Vincenzo Nibali in yellow and Peter Sagan in the green points jersey.
Belkin's Stef Clement was forced to abandon as Alexander Pichot of Europcae, Antony Delaplace of BSE, Nicola Edet of Cofidis, Bartosz Huzarski of Net App, Martin Elmiger of IAM Cycling & Matt Busche of Trek formed the first break of the day.
They took a maximum of 4.15 which was down to 1.32 at the feedzone at Charny Sur Meuse but back up to 2.10 as the escapers passed a memorial at Ossuaire de Douamont to some three hundred thousand who lost their life in the battle of Verdun in the Great War which started one hundred years ago.
Martin Elmiger took the sprint at Hannonville Sous Les Cotes with the escapers just over a minute clear with Bryan Cougard of Europcar taking the remaining points that were available to the peloton.
The gap stayed around a minute as Van Poppel abandoned with knee problems and dropped to 41 seconds going into the final fifty kilometres.
Elmiger and Huzarski decided to take off as the rest of the escapers were brought back by the peloton ten kilometres later.
They quickly took a 1.15 lead as Peter Sagan and his Cannondale team took to the front on the D904 road.
The road started getting hillier as the riders moved onto the Cote De Marson fourth category climb which was 3.2kms long at 5%.
Tommy Voeckler of Europcar went on the attack after the front two were caught.
With 16.3kms left, there was a crash which took down Simon Yates of Orica GreenEdge and Teejay Van Garderen of BMC. The American borrowed Peter Velits bike and continued as fifty riders made up a front group.
John Darwin Atapuma was in that crash and forced to abandon as the main players followed Geraint Thomas and Team Sky on the front.
On what was a technical run in, the riders started on the 1.3km 10% Cote de Boufflers climb.
Cyril Gautier of Europcar attacked followed by Nicholas Roche, Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali before Van Avermaet and Peter Sagan, who has been in the top five of everyone of the six stages, took the climb.
On to a technical finish, Sagan and Van Avermaet were in sight of the peloton and they were caught under the flam rouge by Richie Porte. A crash reduced the front group to twenty riders with Michael Kwiatkowski on the front.
There was another crash as Peter Sagan came up but just by the width of a tyre he was beaten by Matteo Trentin of Omega Pharma Quick Step who won in 5.18.39 ahead of Sagan, Gallopin, Dumoulin and Gerrans.
Nibali keeps his yellow jersey for another day.