The stage had a hilly start, but leveled off towards the finish. After the two leaders were reeled in, the sprinter teams and the teams of the GC riders kept their leaders near the front in a nervous final. Both Kruijswijk and Kuss held up well and are now respectively in tenth and eleventh place in the overall standings.

Kuss found it a stressful day. “It was a very nervous stage”, he said. “But the team did an amazing job by keeping Steven and me in the front all day and put the both of us in a good position for the last kilometre. With a finish like this you know there could be some gaps and you definitely don’t want to lose precious seconds.”

Sports director Merijn Zeeman confirmed. “There was clearly some wind, which caused a lot of nervousness in the peloton. Grischa Niermann prepared the stage well so we knew where we had to be at the front. The guys were in control the entire stage and we came through it without problems. Robert, Timo, Tony and Lennard were very strong today. We are here partly to prepare the Tour de France and a stage like this certainly lends itself to getting the right feeling for similar stages in the first week of the Tour.”