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 Five days after team mate Jack Bauer was caught by the peloton a
few meters from the line after a 222-km breakaway, the Lithuanian
attacked on a short climb close to the finish and never looked back.
German John Degenkolb took second place seven seconds behind and
Norway's Alexander Kristoff finished third after the main bunch was
split by a late crash on roads made slippery by torrential rain
earlier in the day.
All the riders from the main pack were credited with the same time
as the incident happened with less than three kilometers left.
"I was the first to crash, I did not know what happened," said
Slovakian Peter Sagan, who had been tipped as one of the stage
favorites.
Nibali still leads France's Thibaut Pinot by 7:10 and another
Frenchman, Jean-Christophe Peraud, who crashed but said he was fine,
by 7:23, ahead of Saturday's decisive time trial, a 54-km solo ride
between Bergerac and Perigueux.
 Garmin-Sharp, without team leader Andrew Talansky after the American
pulled out due to lower back pain, only had a stage win in mind.
They had Tom-Jelte Slagter in the day's breakaway and the Dutchman
served as Navardauskas's launchpad after the climb.
"The plan was to attack in the climb and to have one of our riders
in the breakaway so he could take a strong relay to help me,"
Navardauskas told a news conference.
"It's almost amazing to keep the peloton at bay," said Navardauskas,
who had his team mate's misfortune in mind.
"Until the last 10 meters I was afraid to turn back," he added.
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Navardauskas powered away from the pack on the fourth-category climb
of the Cote de Monbazillac 13 kilometers from the finish.
Pinot's FDJ.fr team led the peloton in the descent and on the flat
portion leading to the line, Cannondale and Tinkoff-Saxo chased the
Garmin-Sharp rider who was 25 seconds ahead with five kilometers
left.
With just under three kilometers remaining, Peter Sagan was involved
in the crash as well as France's Romain Bardet who is fifth in the
overall standings and his AG2R-La Mondiale team mate Peraud.
"I was caught in the crash, I tried to avoid it but I couldn't.
Romain crashed in front of me," Peraud told reporters.
"Obviously the rain did not help, especially in a finale with a lot
of turns and nervous sprint in the end. We crashed, it's classic."
Pinot, instead, was well placed by the front of the peloton and
avoided the crash.
"We knew it would be a nervous stage, it was important to be near
the front. I did not crash, it's all good," the 24-year-old
Frenchman said.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
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