Lotto-Soudal judged their tactics to perfection as Andre Greipel triumphed in a bunch finish to win stage six of the Giro d'Italia, but general classification leader Alberto Contador was involved in a late crash on Thursday.
Porte sits 20 seconds behind leader Contador - who's Giro is in doubt after dislocating his shoulder in the fall.
The 183-kilometre route from Montecatini Terme to Castiglione Della Pescaia was thought to favour the sprinters due to the relatively flat route.
And so it proved as Greg Henderson dragged team-mate Greipel through the middle of the pack and once he hit the front there was no denying the German a third individual stage win at the Giro.
Just behind the leaders, Contador was one of several riders involved in a pile-up. The Tinkoff-Saxo man, who retained his narrow 0.02 second lead ahead of Fabio Aru (Astana), asked not to put on the pink jersey on podium due to the injuries he sustained.
Daniele Colli (Nippo-Vini Fantini) was also hurt during the incident, he clipped the edge of the barrier and required medical attention for a gruesome-looking arm injury.
At the start of the race, an initial five-man breakaway opened up a gap of over five minutes after 36km, and Colli's team-mate Alessandro Malaguti won the climbing points on the ascent up Pomarance - the only classified climb of the day.
Marco Bandiera (Androni-Sidermec) then won the first intermediate sprint of the day without much competition, while Elia Viviani (Team Sky) also picked up a couple of potentially crucial points in his bid to win the points classification and the red jersey.
The breakaway group was swept up with 14km to go as the likes of Katusha, Orica-GreenEdge, Tinkoff-Saxo and Team Sky jostled for position, but it was Lotto-Soudal who moved to the head of the pack inside the final 3km.
And the Belgian team timed their race well, as Greipel - flanked expertly by Henderson - powered his way to the front of the pack and over the line first.
Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) came home second ahead of Sach Modolo (Lampre-Merida), while Manuel Belletti (Southeast Pro Cycling) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) rounded off the top five.