Germany’s Tony Martin and France’s Julian Alaphilippe lit up the early stages of the 209 kilometre route from Moirans-en-Montagne to Bern, with the duo tagging an ambitious breakaway after 13 kilometres.

Martin, a three-time world time trial champion, has established a reputation for long distance efforts in the past and the 31-year-old Etixx-Quick Step rider and his team-mate aimed to upset the favourites for the stage, which presented a final chance for sprinters ahead of Paris.

The duo were chased by a four-man group, who failed to make contact, as the gap to the peloton grew to nearly six minutes at the halfway mark.

With Alaphilippe starting to toil, Martin effectively produced a solo performance as they headed towards the finish, but they ultimately ended 20km short and were caught by the bunch.

It left the stage open to a bunch sprint at the end, but with an uphill, cobblestone finish, those with raw power were still left facing a difficult challenge to contend at the head of the race.

Ultimately the concluding metres provided a perfect run-in for Sagan, with the Slovakian rider prevailing in a narrow photo-finish decision, ahead of Kristoff, in a time of 4hr 26min 2sec.

"I was not waiting for the results, I thought I was second until they came and told me I had won, it's unbelievable,” said the Tinkoff rider, who had already won stages two and 11.

“After so many times finishing second, the wheel turns.

“I want to thank my team for the work they did all day.

“Then it was a crazy finale, very technical, everyone wanted to be in my wheel.

“I think Kristoff made a mistake in the sprint, he jumped very late and that's how I won."

Briton’s Chris Froome remains 1:47 ahead of second place Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands in the overall standings, with the defending champion still 2:45 ahead of his countryman Adam Yates.

Colombia’s Nairo Quintana is fourth but 2:59 off Froome’s pace.

The final day of the Tour of Poland went ahead as planned, after yesterday’s stage was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.

Britain’s Alex Dowsett secured the stage win of the International Cycling Union WorldTour race, finishing 22 seconds ahead of Spain’s Jonathan Castroviejo in a 25km individual time trial in Krakow.

Belgium's Tim Wellens secured the overall race victory, ending 4:22 clear of runner-up Fabio Felline of Italy.