The 201 kilometres stage from Noirmoutier-En-L'Ïle to Fontenay-Le-Comte was always expected to conclude with a sprint finish.

A three-rider breakaway sought to defy the predictions but their effort proved to be in vain as they were caught with 10km to go.

The closing kilometres proved dramatic with French sprinter Arnaud Démare the first to suffer a crash.

He was soon followed by several contenders for the general classification.

Australia’s Richie Porte and the British duo Adam Yates and Chris Froome were all caught up in a collision as the pace rose towards the finish.

Froome, cleared of an anti-doping rule violation earlier in the week, picked himself up out of a field.

The crash victims all returned to the road as they looked to limit their losses.

They swept past Colombia’s Nairo Quintana after the Movistar rider suffered a late puncture.

With the chaos continuing behind, the sprinter’s lead out trains continued to hurtle towards the finish.

The day’s intermediate sprint at the 119km mark ultimately proved a flavour of what was to come, with Gaviria repeating his success from earlier in the day.

The Quick Step rider dominated the final sprint and crossed the line in a winning time of 4 hours 23min 32sec.

He was followed across the line by Slovakia’s world champion Peter Sagan and Germany’s Marcel Kittel.

While Gaviria took the first yellow jersey of the race, the intrigue was also surrounding how much time the crash victims and Quintana would lose on a stage which was anticipated to have been inconsequential in the overall standings.

Froome, Porte and Yates crossed in large group at 51 seconds down, with Quintana proving the most impacted by incident as he crossed the line 75 seconds behind the leading pack.

Their difficulties provided an early boost for Italy's Vincenzo Nibali after the 2014 winner finished safely in the lead group.

The second Grand Tour of the year is due to continue tomorrow with a 182.5km stage to La Roche-Sur-Yon.