Once again, it took a long and fierce battle before a breakaway could go clear. After several attempts, Lemmen managed to sneak into the move for Team Visma | Lease a Bike. On the Monte Grappa — a gruelling climb of over 25 kilometres — the favourites kept their powder dry for a long time, but with the summit approaching, even they couldn’t hold back any longer.

Yates stayed calm and positioned himself smartly in the group of GC contenders. Everything came back together on the approach to the final climb of the day. Yates tested his legs briefly but quickly realised his rivals were just as sharp. On the plateau, Lemmen — by then dropped from the breakaway — put in a solid effort to support his British leader. The stage was won by early attacker Carlos Verona.

“The plan was to be in the break”, Lemmen said. “But nothing comes easy in this race. It was another brutal fight. This was an attack with purpose — by being up the road, we had someone to fall back on if the favourites blew the race apart. If not, I could go for the stage win myself. In the end, we decided I would drop back to help Simon. We’ve taken another step forward in the GC. Personally, I had a good day, though at one point I had to switch off my brain and just focus on turning the pedals.”