Peter Sagan's two-year wait for a stage win on the Tour de France continued as Ruben Plaza took glory in Monday's race between Bourg-de-Peage and Gap.

At 201 kilometres, the 16th stage represents the second-longest in the 2015 race, and Sagan was unable to catch the Lampre-Merida man on the final descent as the Slovak was forced to settle for his fifth second-place finish of this year's Tour.

With the peloton happy to drop back and give up close to 20 minutes on the leaders, the stage win was fought out by a select few, although late drama came on the final descent as Team Sky's Geraint Thomas careered into a telegraph pole – though he was able to finish the stage in good spirits.

Plaza, who won a stage at the Vuelta Espana 10 years ago, broke his Tour duck thanks to an impressive break on the climb up to Col de Manse.

Once at the summit, Plaza had opened up a one-minute advantage over Sagan, and even the Tinkoff-Saxo man's superb descending skills could not bridge that gap, and he eventually finished 30 seconds back.

Colombian Jarlinson Pantano (IAM), riding in his first Tour, finished six seconds further adrift in third - a fitting way to celebrate his country's Independence Day.

Reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) made a break from the peloton to make up some time on yellow jersey holder Chris Froome of Team Sky, although the Brit retained his three minute, 10 second lead in the general classification.

There was momentary concern for Froome's team-mate Thomas, who was involved in a nasty-looking crash with Argos-Shimano's Warren Barguil.

Barguil misjudged a bend on the rapid descent and bumped into Thomas, sending the Welshman crashing into a telegraph pole and down a small banking before he recovered to finish the stage and held on to his sixth place in the GC.

Despite the incident, Thomas managed to retain his sense of humour when interviewed after the race.

"I feel all right now, the doctor will ask me my name and date of birth soon," he said. When asked what they were, Thomas jokingly replied: "Chris Froome...?"