Under a sunny sky, the riders left Palmi and headed north to Scalea for a 192 km stage. It didn't provide much excitement: only one rider broke away and got a five-minute lead.

At thirty kilometres from the finish line, the peloton - preparing for a bunch sprint - caught the sole escapee and Arnaud Démare secured his second stage win. The riders of Team Jumbo-Visma crossed the finish line in the same time.

"It was a long stage where we saved as much energy as possible", sports director Marc Reef said. "The speed was not very high and everyone was happy with that. It became a bunch sprint, as expected, and we finished the stage in a good way."

In the coming three days, many altitude metres await the riders. "We're going to have a very tough weekend, so it's nice that it was a relatively quiet day today. On Friday and Saturday, we will look a bit further than just the GC and on Sunday, the focus is on our GC riders."