In the stage through the Cantal Mountains, with seven climbs along the way, the pace was very high from the start. It took quite a long time for a large leading group to get the space and compete for the stage victory. Behind the breakaway, Team Jumbo-Visma controlled the stage. After preparatory work by Tom Dumoulin and Sepp Kuss, Roglic and Pogačar attacked in the last two kilometres.

“I am very happy with how it went today”, Roglic said. “I took valuable time on my rivals, except for Pogačar. He is very strong and he is a tough opponent. It’s no surprise to us that he’s doing so well. We saw that in the Vuelta last year. But all in all it was a good day. As long as you gain time, it’s okay and to my advantage. Every second counts. The team was again very strong today. This is not only my performance, but that of the whole team. After all, we do this together. It was a tough day and the final climb, above all the last two kilometres, was very steep. It was tough and everyone was riding at their limit. This has been a good day, but we are not there yet. The Tour is still long and a lot can still happen. We will continue to focus on our plan and then we will see where it takes us.”

Tom Dumoulin was impressed by his leader. “Primoz indicated that he was feeling good and that he wanted to try something in the last two kilometres. He was dominant and the team did very well. It is the first day that differences have been made in the GC. We had hoped to gain time on Egan, but we didn’t expect it. Especially not when Ineos took over on the penultimate climb. They were going really fast. They really went full throttle. After that, Sepp and I took over. Sepp was really strong. It’s still a long way to go in this Tour and there is a very tough third week ahead of us. So far it is going well and today was a good day.”