Ireland’s Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin remain in third and fourth positions respectively on the Vuelta a Espana after stage three in Malaga on Monday.
Team Sky’s Roche finished 25th while Cannondale-Garmin’s Martin was 59th as both riders clocked the same time as stage victor Peter Sagan.
The Slovakian Tinkoff-Saxo rider triumphed in his first Grand Tour stage in more than two years, having endured blanks in the last two Tours de France, where he still emerged with the points classification's green jersey.
The sprint win, ahead of Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin), was Sagan's fourth stage success at the Tour of Spain, following three wins in the 2011 edition.
The 158-kilometre route from Mijas began without Vincenzo Nibali, the 2010 winner who on Sunday was expelled from the race for hanging on to his Astana team car.
Another high-profile name, Fabian Cancellara (Trek) abandoned midway through due to illness.
The Swiss was using the race as preparation for September's Road World Championships in the United States.
Esteban Chaves (Orica-Greenedge) retained the race leader's red jersey by five seconds ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), with Roche 15 seconds off the leader and Martin nine seconds further back.
