Peter Sagan capitalized on a crash that wiped out sprint rival Fernando Gaviria to take ownership of the yellow jersey after stage two of the Tour de France.
Gaviria had triumphed on the opening day of the race but the Colombian's bid for back-to-back stage victories disappeared in an eventful finish in La Roche-sur-Yon.
A pile-up at a corner towards the end of the 182.5-kilometre ride from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain denied the Quick-Step Floors team from setting up their leading man for a bunch sprint.
Instead, Sagan — who had finished second on Saturday — was first to cross the line, the world champion holding off the charge of Bahrain-Merida's Sonny Colbrelli to claim the overall lead.
After coming off his bike to lose time during stage one, Team Sky made sure Chris Froome avoided any further incident to safely cross the line in the peleton.
However, rival Adam Yates crashed for the second successive day, his spill coming with around 30km remaining, while Luis Leon Sanchez of Astana saw his Tour come to an end after a nasty fall.
No Doubting Thomas
With a team time trial up next, Team Sky will fancy their chances of having a rider in yellow by the end of stage three — just not four-time champion Froome.
While the star man was happy enough to coast through following his fall, colleague Geraint Thomas claimed a one-second sprint bonus to leave him handily placed in seventh in the general classification.
"We're trying to ride well as a team and stay as close to the front as possible but everyone is trying to do the same so it's tough," Thomas told ITV4 .
"We're communicating well and riding well, the guys are doing well for me and Chris Froome.
"We'll try to get the stage win first in tomorrow's team time trial and then if we do end up in yellow that would be a nice bonus."
After two days for the sprinters, stage three of the Tour is a 35.5km team time trial in Cholet. It is short but not so sweet, considering there are some small climbs, on the testing route.
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