Caleb Ewan's wait for a first victory at this year's Giro d'Italia continues after he was out-sprinted by unheralded Italian Alberto Dainese on stage 11.
Ewan ran out of legs on the straight run in to Reggio Emilia at the end of the 203-kilometre stage, finishing in fifth place.
The Australian appeared to be in ideal position in the final hundred metres, only to run out of gas as the line approached.
Fernando Gaviria finished in second place and Simone Consonni finished third.
Two-time stage winner at this year's race and overall points leader Arnaud Demare finished fourth, with Mark Cavendish sixth.
The final sprint came after a stunning solo effort from Dries de Bondt of Alpecin-Fenix, who came within 1,200 metres of a stage win after holding off the chasing pack for over 50 kilometres.
The Australian has endured a tough Giro d'Italia so far, crashing on stage one and missing out on victory in stage six by half the width of a wheel.
In Tuesday's race, Ewan was one of the first riders to be dropped, finishing all on his own, dead last, over half an hour behind stage winner Biniam Girmay.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Ewan wrote that since his first-stage crash, he felt his Giro "just keeps going down hill" but that he was "hoping to turn it around" in Wednesday's stage.
He was in good company at the pointy end of Wednesday's route though, with the sprint teams of Lotto-Soudal, Groupema-FDJ and Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl making their presence felt during a rapid day's racing.
The pancake-flat, 203km stage from Santarcangelo di Romagna to Reggio Emilia carried the potential to be a slow day.
However, an easy day was never on the cards as the stage burst into life around the half way mark when the peloton, spooked by the prospect of cross winds, ramped up the pace through Bologna.
Ewan suffered a brief scare when he was caught out by the change in pace, although the 27-year-old was able to regain contact as the group slowed.
The respite in the pack was fleeting though, as Cavendish's Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team and Ineos Grenadiers injected another surge to effect a split before the second intermediate sprint.
The pack all came back together though, until de Bondt was allowed to drift off the front in his brave solo effort. with 55km remaining, the Belgian dangling off the front before he was eventually hauled in with just over a kilometre to go.
Richard Carapaz picked up a three-second bonus at the second intermediate sprint to move to second place in the overall standings.
Juan Pedro López Pérez retains the overall lead in the race of the Maglia Rosa, 12 seconds ahead of João Almeida and Carapaz.
Australian Jai Hindley, who was well protected by his Bora-Hansgrohe team remains in fifth place.
