Sam Bennett fell agonisingly short in his bid to win a first Tour de France stage, pipped on the line by Lotto-Soudal's Caleb Ewan at the end of the third day's riding.
After an uneventful stage, it was set for a bunched sprint finish, with Bennett's Deceuninck - Quick-Step team working hard to keep their sprinter in position.
Bennett looked like taking the victory with 100 metres to ride, but Australian Ewan weaved through the pack to cross the line three-quarters of a bike ahead of the second-placed Tipperary native.
Bennett is striving to be only the sixth Irish rider to win a stage of the Tour de France, after Shay Elliott, Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley and Dan Martin.
The Carrick-on-Suir native would join Elliott as the only Irish men with stage victories in the three grand tours, the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España.
Fourth in the opening stage on Saturday, 29-year-old Bennett has now suffered two narrow defeats in three days of the tour.
🏆 🇦🇺 @CalebEwan 🏆#TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/ZLvooDfvRL
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) August 31, 2020
Ewan won three stages on the Tour last year and looks to be the fastest man at this year's race. Julian Alaphilippe retained the yellow jersey.
After the race, Ewan said: "The last few days haven't been great for us, after we crashed on the first day and lost a couple of guys. But everyone stayed motivated and we all knew if it all went right, I could win the sprint today.
"Everyone today gave it 110% and it worked. In the last kilometre I was a bit too far forward so I dropped back a bit which gave me a chance to rest the legs a bit and it worked perfectly in the end."
Close but no cigar, great sprint by @CalebEwan . Congrats buddy 🤜🏻
— Sam Bennett (@Sammmy_Be) August 31, 2020
Bennett's team-mate Julian Alaphilippe retained the overall leader's yellow jersey.
An all-French breakaway featuring Anthony Perez, polka dot jersey holder Benoit Cosnefroy and Jerome Cousin was kept on a tight leash by the bunch as rain began to fall with 150 kilometres left.
Cousin, who won a Paris-Nice stage in Sisteron in 2018, tried his luck solo with Perez and Cosnefroy being swallowed up by the pack despite the leisurely pace.
Perez later abandoned with a rib fracture and a possible collapsed lung after crashing into his team's car, his Cofidis outfit said.
Cofidis said the 29-year-old had been taken to hospital for further checks.
Cousin was reined in with 16 kilometres left by the peloton controlled by Alaphilippe's Deceuninck Quick Step as the sprinters' teams started to gear up for the bunch sprint.
In-form Wout van Aert, one of top favourite Primoz Roglic's team mates, crashed some six kms from the line but the Milan-Sanremo champion finished the stage.
Tuesday's fourth stage is a 160.5-kilometre effort from Sisteron to Orcieres-Merlette for the first summit finish of the race, with Briton Adam Yates, who trails Alaphilippe by four seconds overall, eyeing the yellow jersey.
