Andre Greipel has claimed his second victory of the 2015 Tour de France with victory on stage five to Amiens.
Mark Cavendish was expected by many to win the stage, something he has not done since winning the corresponding stage in 2013.
World champion Michal Kwiatkowski and next Tony Martin began Cavendish's leadout, with the yellow jersey taking to the front with 2.6km to go.
However, Etixx-QuickStep were swamped by rival teams, including Giant-Alpecin and Cavendish opted to bide his time, sitting behind Greipel.
Cavendish launched his sprint, but Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) powered by him and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) claimed second. Cavendish was third.
The 30-year-old is still three behind Bernard Hinault's tally of stage wins. The Frenchman has 28, second only to Eddy Merckx's record tally of 34.
Cavendish will have another chance in Thursday's 191.5km sixth stage from Abbeville to Le Harve, which is anticipated to end in a bunch sprint, but questions will continue to be asked over whether he will return to the force who won 20 stages in four Tours.
Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished safely in the peloton to remain 12 seconds behind Martin in second place overall.
Slick roads made conditions treacherous for the riders and there were numerous crashes, one after 12km ending Cofidis sprinter Nacer Bouhanni's race. The Frenchman would have hoped to have challenged in Amiens.
The early pace was slow, but the tempo increased with 80km to the finish, as teams attempted to exploit the crosswinds which would split the peloton.
Team Sky next took the initiative and the peloton fractured into pieces, but all the main contenders remained in touch.
A police motorbike toppled on a slippery grass verge, fortunately avoiding any cyclists, as Cavendish suffered a puncture.
He was paced back to the bunch by three team-mates, rejoining the lead group around 63km from the finish.
A crash around 25km from the finish reduced the peloton further, with the hapless Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) among those going down.
The sprinters' teams were all well positioned in the finale as Greipel emerged triumphant, leaving Cavendish frustrated once more.
Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) remains best of the three Irish riders, moving up one place from yesterday to sit 34th overall, 7 minutes and 52 seconds behind his namesake Tony.
While Nicholas Roche lost over a minute on the leaders, he has risen five places in the standings and is 60th overall, 13:36 behind.
Sam Bennett fell one place to 174th, 45:34 behind the leaders.
