Dan Martin misses out as Peter Sagan wins Tour de France stage five
Dan Martin has narrowly missed out on victory in stage five of the Tour de France.
He finished sixth in a sprint finish into Quimper that was won by world champion Peter Sagan.
The three-time world champion powered to victory as Greg Van Avermaet retained the yellow jersey.
Bora-Hansgrohe's Sagan proved too strong for Sonny Colbrelli of Bahrain-Mehrida in a sprint after a steep uphill rise to the finish.
BMC's Van Avermaet came home in seventh place to retain the yellow jersey, moving two seconds clear of team-mate Tejan Van Garderen on the time sheets after picking up a couple of seconds in the bonus sprint.
Irishman Martin of UAE Team Emirates finished in sixth place with Colbrelli's team-mate Vincenzi Nibali 10th, both on the same time as Team Sky's Geraint Thomas in 12th and Chris Froome in 14th.
The provisional results showed no time gaps between the main general classification hopefuls at the end of the 204.5km stage from Lorient.
However, Thomas moved down one place to overall fourth after Quick-Step's Philippe Gilbert also picked up bonus seconds. Thomas is now five seconds off Van Avermaet in yellow.
Froome sits 15th overall, 57 seconds off yellow with Mitchelton-Scott's Adam Yates a further five seconds back in 16th place.
The rolling roads of Brittany provided a different test for the riders after three sprints punctuated by a team time trial. Dimension Data's Mark Cavendish was the first of the sprinters to suffer, but was far from alone as a 15-strong grupetto of quick men had formed by the final climb.
Covering tight and twisty roads, the stage offered hope to a breakaway, and Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Samsic), Julien Vermote (Dimension Data), Jasper De Buyst (Lotto-Soudal) Lilian Calmejane and Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Tom Skuijins (Trek-Segafredo) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) were persuaded to try their luck, building a lead of four and a half minutes at one stage.
Calmejane was the last survivor of the group, hoovered up with 12km to go as Van Avermaet popped out of the front group to take second in the bonus sprint and protect his yellow jersey.
Michael Matthews had been seen as a contender for the stage but the Team Sunweb rider was forced to abandon the Tour due to illness in the morning.
