A second successive sprint finish was anticipated with a largely flat 182.5 kilometre routes to La Roche-Sur-Yon.

A three-rider breakaway went clear at the start of the stage but was quickly reduced to France’s Sylvain Chavanel.

The Direct Énergie rider was allowed to build a lead of over three minutes but his solo effort was never likely to prove enough to trouble the peloton.

He was caught with 15km of the stage to race with another eventful run in to the bunch sprint following.

Germany’s Marcel Kittel suffered a puncture in the final 10km to rule him out of contention for the victory.

There was also misfortune for yesterday’s stage winner Fernando Gaviria of Colombia, with the yellow jersey among several riders caught in a crash with two kilometres to go. 

France’s Arnaud Démare sought to bounce back from his crash on stage one by launching the sprint but missed out on victory. 

Sagan, the only rider in the top three yesterday not to suffer misfortune today, came through to take the victory in a time of 4 hours 06min 37sec.

The Bora-Hansgrohe rider, thrown out of last year’s race for being alleged to have caused a crash, was followed by the fast finishing Italian Sonny Colbrelli.

Demare was also awarded the same time as the duo, the Frenchman eventually ending third.

Sagan now assumes the overall race lead after the 10th Tour de France stage win of his career.

The Slovakian star is now six seconds clear of Gaviria.

Colbrelli completes the top three at 10 seconds down.

The third stage tomorrow is due to be be a 35.5km team time trial in Cholet.