Because of his time bonuses Van Aert moved up to fifth place overall at twenty seconds behind Adam Yates. Kruijswijk is sixth at 24 seconds.

For Van Aert it is his second victory of the season and it is Jumbo Visma’s 25th.

The stage that started in Boën-sur-Lignon took the riders over undulating roads. The early breakaway lasted for a long time and was only reeled in in the final kilometre. Lennard Hofstede, Pascal Eenkhoorn and Neilson Powless positioned Van Aert well in the front. Subsequently, the Belgian positioned himself well in Julian Alaphilippe’s slipstream and outsprinted the French rider with a powerful sprint.

“This is unbelievable. I never expected to beat Sam Bennett here”, Van Aert said. “We knew that it was going to be very sinuous and technical with all those roundabouts in the last two kilometres. It was necessary to be in position fairly early. My teammates brought me well and I positioned myself behind the leadout of Bennett in the slipstream of Alaphilippe. I launched my sprint in the last corner. When I passed Julian, I knew I had it: my second win in a row. What a great week. I did not expect to be able to win here, but I did want to try and sprint for my green jersey. From tomorrow on I will be riding in support of our leader Steven Kruijswijk and try to take the green jersey back to Belgium.”

“This is a very nice win”, Grischa Niermann said. “With an eye on the green jersey, we tried to get Wout in position for the sprint and grab the necessary points. It’s great that Wout wins.”