Following the cancellation of yesterday’s stage due to heavy snow, racing resumed with another opportunity for the sprinters to claim a victory, owing to relatively flat profile of the route.

Ireland’s Matthew Brammeier, Lithuania’s Evaldas Siskevicius and the French duo of Thomas Voeckler and Evaldas Siskevicius led the main breakaway of the day, with the quartet holding a lead of less than two minutes at 40km to the finish.

An attack from Voeckler on the Côte de Saint-Uze saw him go clear at 32km to go, but he was eventually reeled in by the peloton.

His countryman Sylvain Chavanel, Belgium’s Sep Vanmarcke and Spain’s Delio Fernández Cruz had launched their own move, but they effort faltered with one kilometre remaining as the sprinters teams hauled them in.

Cofidis’ Bouhanni, whose stage two win was taken away having deviated from his racing line, powered out of the group to cross the line in a winning time of 4 hours 42min 29sec in an event that is part of the International Cycling Union WorldTour.

Belgium’s Edward Theuns and Germany’s André Greipel completed the top three positions, ending on the same time as the winner.

Australia’s Michael Matthews also clocked the same time to preserve his race lead, the Orica-GreenEdge rider remaining 14 seconds clear of The Netherlands’ Tom Dumoulin.

The sprinters will not be expected to feature front of the peloton tomorrow, as the 198km stage from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Salon-de-Provence features several climbs.

At Tirreno-Adriatico, the Czech Republic’s Zdenek Stybar celebrated winning the second stage of the race, which is also part of the UCI WorldTour, at the end of the 207km course from Camaiore to Pomarance.

The Etixx - Quick Step rider attacked on a steep section in the closing stages and held off the challenge of Slovakia’s Peter Sagan to claim the victory in 5:10:03.

Sagan, the reigning world champion, ended as the runner-up, coming in one second down, alongside Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen.

Stybar’s win was enough for him to take over the race lead from Italy’s Daniel Oss, with Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet now second, nine seconds off the pace.

“I knew about the finale since I recce'd it with our sport director Davide Bramati," Stybar said.

“I knew it suited me perfectly, I also knew that I had good form since I did well at the Strade Bianche.

“I attacked at the right moment when it was very steep just inside three kilometres to go.

“I'm delighted to lead the race now, I'll try to win the overall but I can't promise I'll do it because there's an uphill finish on Sunday that might be too hard for me".

The third stage of the race is due to see the peloton tackle a hilly 176km route from Castelnuovo di Val di Cecina to Montalto di Castro.