Michael Matthews won stage 16 of the Tour de France to Romans-sur-Isere as Irish cyclist Dan Martin lost ground on the leaders.
Chris Froome fought off fierce crosswinds to protect the yellow jersey but Martin lost 51 seconds on the leader as his Quick-Step team-mates failed to help him on several late breaks as the peloton split in the final 20k.
Martin's team-mates seemed to be more interesed in helping Marcel Kittel hold onto the green jersey rather than assist the Irish rider who may have seen his yellow jersey chances disappear today.
Martin was kind to his team afterwards, and blamed their failure to help him on a bout of sickness that has spread through to camp. He also pointed to the danger of the crosswinds in the peloton.
"I wasn’t in a bad position at the top of the climb, it was probably me that made the gap in the end," he told Eurosport.
"I just didn’t have the power in my legs against the wind. It happens. We worked so hard to be in this position but it’s not over.
"Just before it split on the fast downhill, there was a couple of very near crashes between guys getting swept by the wind and coming in left to the group.
"I had to slam on the brakes a couple of times and that lost me the 10 or 15 positions that were vital."
Australian Matthews won his second stage of this year's Tour in a sprint finish ahead of Norway's Edvald Boasson Hagen and German John Degenkolb.
The peloton battled strong winds over lengthy stretches of the 165 kilometres stage from Le Puy-en-Velay, but three-time Tour winner Froome stayed on the right side as the peloton split into pieces towards the end.
Froome's Team Sky did much of the work to cause those splits, with Martin caught on the wrong side as he and dropped to seventh overall, now two minutes and three seconds back.
Simon Yates moved up to sixth in the best young riders' white jersey, one second ahead of Martin.
Froome leads the Tour, the closest in history at this stage in the race, by 18 seconds from Italian national champion Fabio Aru, with Frenchman Romain Bardet a further five seconds back.
Colombian Rigoberto Uran is fourth, only 29 seconds down.
