- McNulty continues to lead
- Team Deceunink riders put in a great performance
The stage got off to a fast start, with the peloton riding at a rate of 46km/h for the first hour, and the main breakaway taking place shortly thereafter and lasting almost the entire race. The breakaway included the two riders from team Deceunink-Quick-Step: Josef Cerny (82, DQT) and Mikkel Honoré (84, DQT) Ide Schelling (17, BOH), Julien Bernard (72, TFS) and Andrey Amador (112, IGD) who managed to create a gap of more than 2’40” over the peloton.
Andreas Leknessund (134, DSM) appeared in between the peloton and the escapees, 30″ behind the lead group at all times until he was finally able to join them.
As the kilometres passed, Astana riders Omar Fraile (5, APT) and Alex Aranburu broke away from the peloton to chase down the day’s escapees – still Cerny, Honoré and Schelling – but were unsuccessful and caught again by the group.
Ultimately the three riders from the initial breakaway at the start of the race managed to hold on and were the first to cross the finish line: Honoré, Cerny and Schelling.
