The tenth stage’s course had two faces. From the start in Pescara, the first half was flat, the last eighty kilometres went into hilly terrain. Edoardo Affini and Tobias Foss were often in the front of the bunch in the opening phase, but their attempts to be in the day’s breakaway were unsuccessful. A leading group of three held on until the final.

The peloton remained in control throughout the day and Foss and others prevented small attacks. The Norwegian champion tried to escape on the Monsano, but the pack did not let him go. Subsequent attacks on the climb and descent were also unsuccessful, but the peloton lost quite a few riders.

“It was a tough day”, sports director Marc Reef said. “The pace was high in the first hundred kilometres. From the start of the hill section, the pace only went up further. Because there was a lot of control in the peloton, we tried to make the group as small as possible for Pascal Eenkhoorn. We did that with Tobias from the foot of the last climb, so the pace increased again. The classification riders briefly picked up that pace, leaving less than thirty men at the top. Pascal could not quite catch up, but we had Koen, Sam and Gijs Leemreize in front. Afterward, we put Koen in position and he sprinted to a nice sixth place. The fight and willingness our riders showed was good to see. It is a sign of freshness, both mentally and physically. It provides hope for the coming days.”