Andre Greipel took his second stage win of this year's Giro d'Italia as Tom Dumoulin retained the leader's pink jersey on Friday.
Lotto-Soudal's Greipel comfortably won the bunch sprint into Foligno after his main rival and fellow German Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) suffered an ill-timed mechanical failure just five kilometres from home.
Greipel did not look well placed as the 211-kilometre stage from Sulmona came down to the final few metres but he burst through the pack to take victory ahead of Italians Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida).
The sprint finish kept the top order of the general classification locked in place, with Dutchman Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin) leading by 26 seconds from Astana's Danish rider Jakob Fugalsang. Russian Ilnur Zakarin of Katusha is 28 seconds back.
With Kittel out of the sprint, Greipel has overtaken him in the points standings to move into the red jersey.
Greipel had won stage five to Benevento on Wednesday, while his team-mate Tim Wellens won on the first summit finish of the race on Thursday.
Nicolas Roche finished 43rd and is now 16th overall, 1 minute and 15 seconds behind the leader. Philip Deignan has slipped back to 86th in the general classifications and is now 22 minutes and 34 seconds behind the pink jersey holder.
"It was tough all day with a strong breakaway that was hard to catch," Greipel said afterwards.
"My team did an amazing job. The chase had to be a serious one. Before the sprint, we hit the front early. I was happy to find my way to another win. The finish was nervous. If we were playing football we'd say we've scored a hat trick with three consecutive stage wins. We're very happy."
Saturday's stage will see the riders tackle a 169km route from Foligno to Arezzo, with the second of two categorised climbs late in the day before a downhill run to the finish.
