Right after the start in Brassac-les-Mins, things went wrong for Grischa Niermann's riders. Kruijswijk, riding the Dauphiné in preparation for next month's Tour de France, crashed hard and had to leave the eight-day race early. Hospital tests revealed that he had broken his collarbone and suffered a pelvic fracture. "It's a big loss for the team. And it's very upsetting for Steven", teammate Laporte said.

Seven riders had launched an early escape, but they were unable to establish a strong lead. Team Jumbo-Visma remained alert all day and caught the break well before the finish. Laporte was in an excellent position to challenge for the stage win. Again, Jonas Vingegaard provided a great lead-out, but the Frenchman was unable to capitalise on his teammates' excellent work this time.

"The team did really well, just like in the first stage", Laporte said. "Unfortunately, my legs weren't good enough to win. It was a really tough stage. The last five kilometres were very fast. It was not the plan for Jonas to do another lead-out for me, but he did a fantastic job again. Unfortunately, I couldn't reward the team today."

The race's longest stage is scheduled for tomorrow. As the leader of the general classification, Laporte will start again in the yellow jersey. "It's very nice, of course. It's always great to be at the top of the general classification. Especially the yellow leader's jersey has something special in France."