Porte was just able to squeeze around the pile-up with 250 metres to go, which caught up race leader Alberto Contador among a number of others and blocked the road in Castiglione della Pescaia. Viviani was contesting the sprint in the red jersey but after being edged off the wheel of Andre Greipel the Italian was never able to find a clean path to the finish, eventually collecting seventh.

Greipel (Lotto Soudal) went on to take the victory after what had been a nervous finish, holding off Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) at the line. The bunch sprint ensured that the general classification remained unchanged, with Porte holding third overall, 20 seconds behind Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), who was unable to pull on the maglia rosa on the podium after his crash.

Team Sky worked hard in the closing stages to remain up front and out of trouble, with Vasil Kiryienka setting the pace before Bernhard Eisel and Salvatore Puccio took Porte and Viviani into the finish. After the stage Vivani admitted it had been a difficult day in the saddle.

"It was a really dangerous sprint today," the Italian told TeamSky.com. "When I saw all the confusion all I could really think about was staying on the bike. I did my sprint but when I hit the front it was only for seventh place. On a sprint like today when you don't crash it is a good day.

"I lost the jersey but I am just two points back on Greipel. But for us it was a good day at least because worked very well to stay at the front with Richie. He missed the crash which was good news.

"It's been great to ride in the red jersey. Obviously I would like to have kept the jersey and I managed to take points at both intermediate sprints today. That gave me 10 points and I got another 10 points at the finish. Tomorrow is harder and the longest stage of the Giro but it could be another sprint possibly. Maybe it's a day for the breakaway, we will see what tactics the others teams use."