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A dog caused chaos at the fifth stage  on Wednesday as several members of the peloton crashed in a bid to avoid the animal.

Favourite Remco Evenepoel was one of the men that hit the deck in the race after the dog came from nowhere and ran towards the Belgian.

Evenepoel swerved to avoid the dog and didn’t make contact, but ended up on the floor.He was able to carry on after a brief break.

That wasn’t the end of his problems, however, with the 23-year-old brought down again along with many riders with less than 2km of the race to go.

The second crash did not affect Evenepoel’s time as it happened inside the 3km mark, effectively neutralising the general classification times.

The crash involving the dog also meant Evenepoel’s SoudalaQuick-Step team-mate Davide Ballerini fell, sliding several metres on the tarmac.

But Evenepoel, wearing his rainbow jersey after losing the maglia rosa on Tuesday, was back on the saddle again two minutes later before catching up with the bunch.

There was a third crash just metres from the line which involved Brit Mark Cavendish, but he manager to slide across the line to come fourth.

Leader Andreas Leknessund, meanwhile, avoided all three crashes and retained the leader’s maglia rosa jersey with a 28-second lead over Evenepoel.

The race was won by Australian Kaden Groves, who, despite falling earlier, dominated the sprint to take home victory.

‘I surprised myself today,’ he said after the race.’Everything was going well but then I crashed at the roundabout with seven kilometres to go.

‘Luckily, I put my chain back on fast enough and the group came back together. The guys did a good job earlier and then luckily I was good enough to be in position and had the legs to lead out and win.

‘It’s a dream to win, this is a race I’ve been focusing on since November or December.After two third places this week, they (the team) delivered me to a win.’