Unlike yesterday, it didn't take long for the day's breakaway to form. Eenkhoorn once again aimed for the breakaway and was part of the leading group for the second day in a row. The Giro debutant and his four fellow escapees got a seven-minute lead.

The sprinters’ teams slowly but surely closed the gap, but due to the excellent cooperation in the front group, the peloton had to put maximum effort into catching the escapees. The quartet even seemed to have the best chances to fight for the stage win, but at 300 metres from the finish, the merge was a fact.

"I always thought we were going to make it. It's a shame that we were caught in the last kilometre”, Eenkhoorn said. "It was a pretty tough final, which went slightly uphill. I don't know if the others had empty legs, but in the last kilometres the cooperation wasn't so good anymore."

Eenkhoorn was one of the riders who set the pace in the leading group. "When five of us were ahead, I promptly said that we would have to make the difference on the climb and then defend the lead. Then it was a long way downhill and because we had the wind in our backs, it went very well. We held on well, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough."